REESE   LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Deceived       MAR  15  1893          ,  l8g    . 

^Accessions  No.  ^O  £TS~7  ,      Class  No.  ...U. 


Carl 


HENRY  CLAY.  In  American  Statesmen 
Series.  2  vols.  i6mo,  gilt  top,  $2.50; 
half  morocco,  #5.00. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  An  Essay.  i6mo, 
$1.00. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 
BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


BY 


CARL   SCHURZ 


BOSTON    AND    NEW   YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

(Cbe  UrtwtDe  PICS?,  £amtmD0e 


Copyright,  1891, 
BY  CARL  SCHUR2 

and 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  & 

All  rights  reserved. 


FIFTH   EDITION. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghtoa  &  Co. 


This  essay  was  originally  published  in  The 
Atlantic  Monthly  as  a  review  of  "Abraham 
Lincoln,  a  History,"  by  John  G.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay.  Owing  to  many  suggestions  and 
requests  which  have  come  from  various  quarters 
to  the  author  as  well  as  the  publishers,  a  republi- 
cation  in  book  form  has  been  ujidertaken,  and  the 
original  text  has  been  revised  and  slightly  modi 
fied  to  adapt  it  to  that  purpose. 

The  portrait  of  Lincoln  which  forms  the  fron 
tispiece  is  from  a  photograph  taken  (probably  in 
1860}  before  his  election  to  the  Presidency,  and  is 
regarded  by  competent  judges  as  one  of  the  best 
and  most  characteristic  likenesses  of  him  extant. 
An  etching  by  M.  Rajon,  the  late  eminent  French 
artist,  and  a  recent  masterly  engraving  on  wood 
by  Mr.  Gustav  Kruell,  were  both  based  upon  it, 
but  it  is  now  for  the  first  time  reproduced,  by 
the  photogravure  process,  with  absolute  fidelity  to 
the  original,  through  the  courtesy  of  its  possessor, 
Mr.  W.  L.  Garrism,  of  Boston. 


ABRAHA       LINCOLN 


|O  American  can  study  the  char 
acter  and  career  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  without  being  carried 
away  by  sentimental  emotions.  We  are 
always  inclined  to  idealize  that  which  we 
love,  —  a  state  of  mind  very  unfavorable  to 
the  exercise  of  sober  critical  judgment. 
It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  most 
of  those  who  have  written  or  spoken  on 
that  extraordinary  man,  even  while  con 
scientiously  endeavoring  to  draw  a  life-like 
portraiture  of  his  being,  and  to  form  a  just 
estimate  of  his  public  conduct,  should  have 
drifted  into  more  or  less  indiscriminating 
eulogy,  painting  his  great  features  in  the 
most  glowing  colors,  and  covering  with 
tender  shadings  whatever  might  look  like  a 
blemish. 


Abraham  Lincoln 


But  his  standing  before  posterity  will 
not  be  exalted  by  mere  praise  of  his  vir 
tues  and  abilities,  nor  by  any  concealment 
of  his  limitations  and  faults.  The  stature 
of  the  great  man,  one  of  whose  peculiar 
charms  consisted  in  his  being  so  unlike  all 
other  great  men,  will  rather  lose  than  gain 
by  the  idealization  which  so  easily  runs 
into  the  commonplace.  For  it  was  dis 
tinctly  the  weird  mixture  of  qualities  and 
forces  in  him,  of  the  lofty  with  the  com 
mon,  the  ideal  with  the  uncouth,  of  that 
which  he  had  become  with  that  which  he 
had  not  ceased  to  be,  that  made  him  so 
fascinating  a  character  among  his  fellow- 
men,  gave  him  his  singular  power  over 
their  minds  and  hearts,  and  fitted  him  to 
be  the  greatest  leader  in  the  greatest  crisis 
of  our  national  life. 

His  was  indeed  a  marvelous  growth. 
The  statesman  or  the  military  hero  born 
and  reared  in  a  log  cabin  is  a  familiar  fig 
ure  in  American  history ;  but  we  may 
search  in  vain  among  our  celebrities  for 


Abraham  Lincoln 


one  whose  origin  and  early  life  equaled 
Abraham  Lincoln's  in  wretchedness.  He 
first  saw  the  light  in  a  miserable  hovel  in 
Kentucky,  on  a  farm  consisting  of  a  few 
barren  acres  in  a  dreary  neighborhood  ;  his 
father  a  typical  "  poor  Southern  white," 
shiftless  and  improvident,  without  ambi 
tion  for  himself  or  his  children,  constantly 
looking  for  a  new  piece  of  land  on  which 
he  might  make  a  living  without  much 
work  ;  his  mother,  in  her  youth  handsome 
and  bright,  grown  prematurely  coarse  in 
feature  and  soured  in  mind  by  daily  toil 
and  care ;  the  whole  household  squalid, 
cheerless,  and  utterly  void  of  elevating  in 
spirations.  Only  when  the  family  had 
"moved"  into  the  malarious  backwoods  of 
Indiana,  the  mother  had  died,  and  a  step 
mother,  a  woman  of  thrift  and  energy,  had 
taken  charge  of  the  children,  the  shaggy- 
headed,  ragged,  barefooted,  forlorn  boy, 
then  seven  years  old,  "began  to  feel  like  a 
human  being."  Hard  work  was  his  early 
lot.  When  a  mere  boy  he  had  to  help  in 


Abraham  Lincoln 


supporting  the  family,  either  on  his  father's 
clearing,  or  hired  out  to  other  farmers  to 
plough,  or  dig  ditches,  or  chop  wood,  or 
drive  ox  teams  ;  occasionally  also  to  "  tend 
the  baby,"  when  the  farmer's  wife  was 
otherwise  engaged.  He  could  regard  it  as 
an  advancement  to  a  higher  sphere  of  ac 
tivity  when  he  obtained  work  in  a  "  cross 
roads  store,"  where  he  amused  the  custom 
ers  by  his  talk  over  the  counter;  for  he 
soon  distinguished  himself  among  the  back 
woods  folk  as  one  who  had  something  to 
say  worth  listening  to.  To  win  that  dis 
tinction,  he  had  to  draw  mainly  upon  his 
wits  ;  for,  while  his  thirst  for  knowledge 
was  great,  his  opportunities  for  satisfying 
that  thirst  were  wofully  slender. 

In  the  Jog  school-house,  which  he  could 
visit  but  little,  he  was  taught  only  read 
ing,  writing,  and  elementary  arithmetic. 
Among  the  people  of  the  settlement,  bush 
f?  oiers  and  small  tradesmen,  he  found 
none  of  uncommon  intelligence  or  educa 
tion  ;  but  some  of  them  had  a  few  books, 


Abra'kam  Lincoln 


which  he  borrowed  eagerly.  Thus  he  read 
and  re-read  yEsop's  Fables,  learning  to  tell 
stories  with  a  point  and  to  argue  by  para 
bles  ;  he  read  Robinson  Crusoe,  The  Pil 
grim's  Progress,  a  short  history  of  the 
United  States,  and  Weems'  Life  of  Wash 
ington.  To  the  town  constable's  he  went 
to  read  the  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana. 
Every  printed  page  that  fell  into  his  hands 
he  would  greedily  devour,  and  his  family 
and  friends  watched  him  with  wonder,  as 
the  uncouth  boy,  after  his  daily  work, 
crouched  in  a  corner  of  the  log  cabin  or 
outside  under  a  tree,  absorbed  in  a  book 
while  munching  his  supper  of  corn  bread. 
In  this  manner  he  began  to  gather  some 
knowledge,  and  sometimes  he  would  aston 
ish  the  girls  with  such  startling  remarks  as 
that  the  earth  was  moving  around  the  sun, 
and  not  the  sun  around  the  earth,  and  they 
marveled  where  "  Abe "  could  have  got 
such  queer  notions.  Soon  he  also  felt  the 
impulse  to  write  ;  not  only  making  extracts 
from  books  he  wished  to  remember,  but 


Abraham  Lincoln 


also  composing  little  essays  of  his  own. 
First  he  sketched  these  with  charcoal  on  a 
wooden  shovel  scraped  white  with  a  draw 
ing-knife,  or  on  basswood  shingles.  Then 
he  transferred  them  to  paper,  which  was 
a  scarce  commodity  in  the  Lincoln  house 
hold  ;  taking  care  to  cut  his  expressions 
close,  so  that  they  might  not  cover  too 
much  space,  —  a  style  -  forming  method 
greatly  to  be  commended.  Seeing  boys 
put  a  burning  coal  on  the  back  of  a  wood 
turtle,  he  was  moved  to  write  on  cruelty  to 
animals.  Seeing  men  intoxicated  with 
whiskey,  he  wrote  on  temperance.  In 
verse-making,  too,  he  tried  himself,  and 
in  satire  on  persons  offensive  to  him  or 
others,  —  satire  the  rustic  wit  of  which 
was  not  always  fit  for  ears  polite.  Also 
political  thoughts  he  put  upon  paper,  and 
some  of  his  pieces  were  even  deemed 
good  enough  for  publication  in  the  county 
weekly. 

Thus  he  won  a  neighborhood  reputation 
as  a  clever  young  man,  which  he  increased 


A  braliaiti  L  incoln 


by  his  performances  as  a  speaker,  not  sel 
dom  drawing  upon  himself  the  dissatisfac 
tion  of  his  employers  by  mounting  a  stump 
in  the  field,  and  keeping  the  farm  hands 
from  their  work  by  little  speeches  in  a  jo 
cose  and  sometimes  also  a  serious  vein. 
At  the  rude  social  frolics  of  the  settlement 
he  became  an  important  person,  telling 
funny  stories,  mimicking  the  itinerant 
preachers  who  had  happened  to  pass  by, 
and  making  his  mark  at  wrestling  matches, 
too ;  for  at  the  age  of  seventeen  he  had  at 
tained  his  full  height,  six  feet  four  inches 
in  his  stockings,  if  he  had  any,  and  a  ter 
ribly  muscular  clodhopper  he  was.  But  he 
was  known  never  to  use  his  extraordinary 
strength  to  the  injury  or  humiliation  of 
others ;  rather  to  do  them  a  kindly  turn, 
or  to  enforce  justice  and  fair  dealing  be 
tween  them.  All  this  made  him  a  favorite 
in  backwoods  society,  although  in  some 
things  he  appeared  a  little  odd  to  his 
friends.  Far  more  than  any  of  them,  he 
was  given  not  only  to  reading,  but  to  fits 


8  Abraham  Lincoln 

of  abstraction,  to  quiet  musing  with  him 
self,  and  also  to  strange  spells  of  melan 
choly,  from  which  he  often  would  pass  in 
a  moment  to  rollicking  outbursts  of  droll 
humor.  But  on  the  whole  he  was  one  of 
the  people  among  whom  he  lived  ;  in  ap 
pearance  perhaps  even  a  little  more  un 
couth  than  most  of  them,  —  a  very  tall, 
rawboned  youth,  with  large  features,  dark, 
shriveled  skin,  and  rebellious  hair;  his 
arms  and  legs  long,  out  of  proportion  ;  clad 
in  deerskin  trousers,  which  from  frequent 
exposure  to  the  rain  had  shrunk  so  as  to 
sit  tightly  on  his  limbs,  leaving  several 
inches  of  bluish  shin  exposed  between  their 
lower  end  and  the  heavy  tan-colored  shoes  ; 
the  nether  garment  held  usually  by  only 
one  suspender,  that  was  strung  over  a 
coarse  home-made  shirt ;  the  head  covered 
in  winter  with  a  coonskin  cap,  in  summer 
with  a  rough  straw  hat  of  uncertain  shape, 
without  a  band. 

It    is    doubtful    whether    he    felt    him 
self   much    superior   to   his    surroundings, 


Abraham  Lincoln 


although  he  confessed  to  a  yearning  for 
some  knowledge  of  the  world  outside  of 
the  circle  in  which  he  lived.  This 
was  gratified ;  but  how  ?  At  the  age  of 
nineteen  he  went  down  the  Mississippi  to 
New  Orleans  as  a  flatboat  hand,  tempo 
rarily  joining  a  trade  many  members  of 
which  at  that  time  still  took  pride  in  be 
ing  called  "half  horse  and  half  alligator." 
After  his  return  he  worked  and  lived  in 
the  old  way  until  the  spring  of  1830,  when 
his  father  "moved  again,"  this  time  to  Illi 
nois  ;  and  on  the  journey  of  fifteen  days 
"  Abe  "  had  to  drive  the  ox  wagon  which 
carried  the  household  goods.  Another  log 
cabin  was  built,  and  then,  fencing  a  field, 
Abraham  Lincoln  split  those  historic  rails 
which  were  destined  to  play  so  picturesque 
a  part  in  the  presidential  campaign  twenty- 
eight  years  later. 

Having  come  of  age,  Lincoln  left  the 
family,  and  "struck  out  for  himself."  He 
had  to  "  take  jobs  whenever  he  could  get 
them."  The  first  of  these  carried  him 


io  Abraham  Lincoln 

again  as  a  flatboat  hand  to  New  Orleans. 
There  something  happened  that  made  a 
lasting  impression  upon  his  soul :  he  wit 
nessed  a  slave  auction.  "  His  heart  bled," 
wrote  one  of  his  companions ;  "  said  no 
thing  much  ;  was  silent ;  looked  bad.  I  can 
say,  knowing  it,  that  it  was  on  this  trip  that 
he  formed  his  opinion  on  slavery.  It  run 
it§  IFon  in  mm  then  and  there,  May,  1831. 
I  have  heard  him  say  so  often."  Then  he 
lived  several  years  at  New  Salem,  in  Illi 
nois,  a  small  mushroom  village,  with  a  mill, 
some  "stores"  and  whiskey  shops,  that 
rose  quickly,  and  soon  disappeared  again. 
It  was  a  desolate,  disjointed,  half -working 
and  half-loitering  life,  without  any  other 
aim  than  to  gain  food  and  shelter  from  day 
to  day.  He  served  as  pilot  on  a  steamboat 
trip,  then  as  clerk  in  a  store  and  a  mill  ; 
business  failing,  he  was  adrift  for  some 
time.  Being  compelled  to  measure  his 
strength  with  the  chief  bully  of  the  neigh 
borhood,  and  overcoming  him,  he  became 
a  noted  person  in  that  muscular  commu- 


Abraham  Lincoln 


nity,  and  won  the  esteem  and  friendship  of 
the  ruling  gang  of  ruffians  to  such  a  de 
gree  that,  when  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke 
out,  they  elected  him,  a  young  man  of 
twenty-three,  captain  of  a  volunteer  com 
pany,  composed  mainly  of  roughs  of  their 
kind.  He  took  the  field,  and  his  most 
noteworthy  deed  of  valor  consisted,  not  in 
killing  an  Indian,  but  in  protecting  against 
his  own  men,  at  the  peril  of  his  own  life, 
the  life  of  an  old  savage  who  had  strayed 
into  his  camp. 

The  Black  Hawk  war  over,  he  turned  to 
politics.  The  step  from  the  captaincy  of 
a  volunteer  company  to  a  candidacy  for 
a  seat  in  the  legislature  seemed  a  natural 
one.  But  his  popularity,  although  great  in 
New  Salem,  had  not  spread  far  enough  over 
the  district,  and  he  was  defeated.  Then 
the  wretched  hand-to-mouth  struggle  be 
gan  again.  He  "  set  up  in  store-business  " 
with  a  dissolute  partner,  who  drank  whis 
key  while  Lincoln  was  reading  books.  The 
result  was  a  disastrous  failure  and  a  load 


12  Abraham  Lincoln 

of  debt.  Thereupon  he  became  a  deputy 
surveyor,  and  was  appointed  postmaster  of 
New  Salem,  the  business  of  the  post  office 
being  so  small  that  he  could  carry  the  in 
coming  and  outgoing  mail  in  his  hat.  All 
this  could  not  lift  him  from  poverty,  and 
his  surveying  instruments  and  horse  and 
saddle  were  sold  by  the  sheriff  for  debt. 

But  while  all  this  misery  was  upon  him 
his  ambition  rose  to  higher  aims.  He 
walked  many  miles  to  borrow  from  a 
school-master  a  grammar  with  which  to 
improve  his  language.  A  lawyer  lent  him 
a  copy  of  Blackstone,  and  he  began  to 
study  law.  People  would  look  wonderingly 
at  the  grotesque  figure  lying  in  the  grass, 
"with  his  feet  up  a  tree,"  or  sitting  on 
a  fence,  as,  absorbed  in  a  book,  he  learned 
to  construct  correct  sentences  and  made 
himself  a  jurist.  *  At  once  he  gained  a 
little  practice,  pettifogging  before  a  justice 
of  the  peace  for  friends,  without  expect 
ing  a  fee.  Judicial  functions,  too,  were 
thrust  upon  him,  but  only  at  horse-races  or 


Abraham  Lincoln  13 

wrestling  matches,  where  his  acknowledged 
honesty  and  fairness  gave  his  verdicts  un 
disputed  authority.  His  popularity  grew 
apace,  and  soon  he  could  be  a  candidate 
for  the  legislature  again.  Although  he 
called  himself  a  Whig,  an  ardent  admirer 
of  Henry  Clay,  his  clever  stump  speeches 
won  him  the  election  in  the  strongly  Den> 
ocratic  district.  Then  for  the  first  time, 
perhaps,  he  thought  seriously  of  his  out 
ward  appearance.  So  far  he  had  been  con 
tent  with  a  garb  of  "  Kentucky  jeans,"  not 
seldom  ragged,  usually  patched,  and  al 
ways  shabby.  Now  he  borrowed  some 
money  from  a  friend  to  buy  a  new  suit  of 
clothes  —  "  store  clothes  "  — fit  for  a  Sanga- 
mon  County  statesman  ;  and  thus  adorned 
he  set  out  for  the  state  capital,  Vandalia, 
to  take  his  seat  among  the  lawmakers. 

His  legislative  career,  which  stretched 
over  several  sessions,  for  he  was  thrice  re- 
elected,  in  1836,  1838,  and  1840,  was  not 
remarkably  brilliant.  He  did,  indeed,  not 
lack  ambition.  He  dreamed  even  of  mak- 


14  Abraham  Lincoln 

ing  himself  "the  De  Witt  Clinton  of  Illi 
nois,"  and  he  actually  distinguished  him 
self  by  zealous  and  effective  work  in  those 
"  log-rolling "  operations  by  which  the 
young  State  received  "  a  general  system  of 
internal  improvements "  in  the  shape  of 
railroads,  canals,  and  banks,  —  a  reckless 
policy,  burdening  the  State  with  debt,  and 
producing  the  usual  crop  of  political  de 
moralization,  but  a  policy  characteristic  of 
the  time  and  the  impatiently  enterprising 
spirit  of  the  Western  people.  Lincoln,  no 
doubt  with  the  best  intentions,  but  with 
little  knowledge  of  the  subject,  simply  fol 
lowed  the  popular  current.  The  achieve 
ment  in  which,  perhaps,  he  gloried  most 
was  the  removal  of  the  state  government 
from  Vandalia  to  Springfield  ;  one  of  those 
triumphs  of  political  management  which 
are  apt  to  be  the  pride  of  the  small  politi 
cian's  statesmanship.  One  thing,  however, 
he  did  in  which  his  true  nature  asserted 
itself,  and  which  gave  distinct  promise  of 
the  future  pursuit  of  high  aims.  Against 


Abraham  Lincoln  15 

' I\ 

an  overwhelming  preponderance  of  senti 
ment  in  the  legislature,  followed  by  only 
one  other  member,  he  recorded  his  protest 
against  a  proslavery  resolution,  —  that  pro 
test  declaring  "the  institution  of  slavery 
to  be  founded  on  both  injustice  and  bad 
policy."  This  was  not  only  the  irrepres 
sible  voice  of  his  conscience ;  it  was  true 
moral  valor,  too  ;  for  at  that  time,  in  many 
parts  of  the  West,  an  abolitionist  was  re 
garded  as  little  better  than  a  horse-thief, 
and  even  "  Abe  Lincoln"  would  hardly 
have  been  forgiven  his  anti-slavery  princi 
ples,  had  he  not  been  known  as  such  an 
"uncommon  good  fellow."  But  here,  in 
obedience  to  the  great  conviction  of  his 
life,  he  manifested  his  courage  to  stand 
alone,  —  that  courage  which  is  the  first 
requisite  of  leadership  in  a  great  cause. 

Together  with  his  reputation  and  influ 
ence  as  a  politician  grew  his  law  practice, 
especially  after  he  had  removed  from  New 
Salem  to  Springfield,  and  associated  him 
self  with  a  practitioner  of  good  standing. 


1 6  Abraham  Lincoln 

He  had  now  at  last  won  a  fixed  position  in 
society.  He  became  a  successful  lawyer, 
less,  indeed,  by  his  learning  as  a  jurist  than 
by  his  effectiveness  as  an  advocate  and  by 
the  striking  uprightness  of  his  character ; 
and  it  may  truly  be  said  that  his  vivid  sense 
of  truth  and  justice  had  much  to  do  with 
his  effectiveness  as  an  advocate.  He  would 
refuse  to  act  as  the  attorney  even  of  per 
sonal  friends  when  he  saw  the  right  on  the 
other  side.  He  would  abandon  cases,  even 
during  trial,  when  the  testimony  convinced 
him  that  his  client  was  in  the  wrong.  He 
would  dissuade  those  who  sought  his  ser 
vice  from  pursuing  an  obtainable  advantage 
when  their  claims  seemed  to  him  unfair. 
Presenting  his  very  first  case  in  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court,  the  only  question 
being  one  of  authority,  he  declared  that, 
upon  careful  examination,  he  found  all  the 
authorities  on  the  other  side,  and  none 
on  his.  Persons  accused  of  crime,  when 
he  thought  them  guilty,  he  would  not  de 
fend  at  all,  or,  attempting  their  defense,  he 


Abraham  Lincoln  17 


was  unable  to  put  forth  his  powers.  One 
notable  exception  is  on  record,  when  his 
personal  sympathies  had  been  strongly 
aroused.  But  when  he  felt  himself  to  be 
The  protector  of  innocence,  the  defender 
of  justice,  or  the  prosecutor  of  wrong,  he 
frequently  disclosed  such  unexpected  re 
sources  of  reasoning,  such  depth  of  feeling, 
and  rose  to  such  fervor  of  appeal  as  to  as 
tonish  and  overwhelm  his  hearers,  and 
make  him  fairly  irresistible.  Even  an  or 
dinary  law  argument,  coming  from  him, 
seldom  failed  to  produce  the  impression 
that  he  was  profoundly  convinced  of  the 
soundness  of  his  position.  It  is  not  sur 
prising  that  the  mere  appearance  of  so  con 
scientious  an  attorney  in  any  case  should 
have  carried,  not  only  to  juries,  but  even 
to  judges,  almost  a  presumption  of  right 
on  his  side,  and  that  the  people  began  to 
call  him,  sincerely  meaning  it,  "  honest 
Abe  Lincoln." 

In  the  mean  time  he  had  private  sorrows 
and  trials  of  a  painfully  afflicting  nature. 


1 8  Abraham  Lincoln 

He  had  loved  and  been  loved  by  a  fair  and 
estimable  girl,  Ann  Rutledge,  who  died  in 
the  flower  of  her  youth  and  beauty,  and  he 
mourned  her  loss  with  such  intensity  of 
grief  that  his  friends  feared  for  his  reason. 
Recovering  from  his  morbid  depression,  he 
bestowed  what  he  thought  a  new  affection 
upon  another  lady,  who  refused  him.  And 
finally,  moderately  prosperous  in  his  world 
ly  affairs,  and  having  prospects  of  political 
distinction  before  him,  he  paid  his  ad 
dresses  to  Mary  Todd,  of  Kentucky,  and 
was  accepted.  But  then  tormenting  doubts 
of  the  genuineness  of  his  own  affection 
for  her,  of  the  compatibility  of  their  char 
acters,  and  of  their  future  happiness  came 
upon  him.  His  distress  was  so  great  Jthat 
he  felt  himself  in  danger  of  suicide,  and 
feared  to  carry  a  pocket-knife  with  him  ; 
and  he  gave  mortal  offense  to  his  bride  by 
not  appearing  on  the  appointed  wedding 
day.  Now  the  torturing  consciousness  of 
the  wrong  he  had  done  her  grew  unendur 
able.  He  won  back  her  affection,  ended 


Abraham  Lincoln  19 

the  agony  by  marrying  her,  and  became  a 
faithful  and  patient  husband  and  a  good 
father.  But  it  was  no  secret  to  those  who 
knew  the  family  well,  that  his  domestic  life 
was  full  of  trials.  The  erratic  temper  of 
his  wife  not  seldom  put  the  gentleness  of 
his  nature  to  the  severest  tests  ;  and  these 
troubles  and  struggles,  which  accompanied 
him  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  his  life 
from  the  modest  home  in  Springfield  to 
the  White  House  at  Washington,  adding 
untold  private  heartburnings  to  his  public 
cares,  and  sometimes  precipitating  upon 
him  incredible  embarrassments  in  the  dis 
charge  of  his  public  duties,  form  one  of 
the  most  pathetic  features  of  his  career. 

He  continued  to  "  ride  the  circuit,"  read 
books  while  traveling  in  his  buggy,  told 
funny  stories  to  his  fellow-lawyers  in  the 
tavern,  chatted  familiarly  with  his  neigh 
bors  around  the  stove  in  the  store  and  at 
the  post-office,  had  his  hours  of  melancholy 
brooding  as  of  old,  and  became  more  and 
more  widely  known  and  trusted  and  be- 


2O  Abraham  Lincoln 

loved  among  the  people  of  his  State  for  his 
ability  as  a  lawyer  and  politician,  for  the 
uprightness  of  his  character  and  the  ever- 
flowing  spring  of  sympathetic  kindness  in 
his  heart.  His  main  ambition  was  con 
fessedly  that  of  political  distinction  ;  but 
hardly  any  one  would  at  that  time  have 
seen  in  him  the  man  destined  to  lead  the 
nation  through  the  greatest  crisis  of  the 
century. 

His  time  had  not  yet  come  when,  in 
1846,  he  was  elected  to  Congress.  In  a 
clever  speech  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  he  denounced  President  Polk  for  hav 
ing  unjustly  forced  war  upon  Mexico,  and 
he  amused  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  by 
a  witty  attack  upon  General  Cass.  More 
important  was  the  expression  he  gave  to 
his  anti-slavery  impulses  by  offering  a  bill 
looking  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  by  his  re 
peated  votes  for  the  famous  Wilmot  Pro 
viso,  intended  to  exclude  slavery  from  the 
Territories  acquired  from  Mexico.  But 


Abraham  Lincoln  21 

when,  at  the  expiration  of  his  term,  in 
March,  1849,  he  left  his  seat,  he  gloomily 
despaired  of  ever  seeing  the  day  when  the 
cause  nearest  to  his  heart  would  be  rightly 
grasped  by  the  people,  and  when  he  would 
be  able  to  render  any  service  to  his  coun 
try  in  solving  the  great  problem.  Nor  had 
his  career  as  a  member  of  Congress  in  any 
sense  been  such  as  to  gratify  his  ambition. 
Indeed,  if  he  ever  had  any  belief  in  a  great 
destiny  for  himself,  it  must  have  been 
weak  at  that  period  ;  for  he  actually  sought 
to  obtain  from  the  new  Whig  President, 
General  Taylor,  the  place  of  Commissioner 
of  the  General  Land  Office,  willing  to  bury 
himself  in  one  of  the  administrative  bu 
reaus  of  the  government.  Fortunately  for 
the  country,  he  failed  ;  and  no  less  fortu 
nately,  when,  later,  the  territorial  gover 
norship  of  Oregon  was  offered  to  him,  Mrs. 
Lincoln's  protest  induced  him  to  decline 
it.  Returning  to  Springfield,  he  gave  him 
self  with  renewed  zest  to  his  law  practice, 
acquiesced  in  the  Compromise  of  1850 


22  Abraham  Lincoln 

with  reluctance  and  a  mental  reservation, 
supported  in  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1852  the  Whig  candidate  in  some  spirit 
less  speeches,  and  took  but  a  languid  inter 
est  in  the  politics  of  the  day.  But  just 
then  his  time  was  drawing  near. 

The  peace  promised,  and  apparently  in 
augurated,  by  the  Compromise  of  1850  was 
rudely  broken  by  the  introduction  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill  in  1854.  The  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  opening  the 
Territories  of  the  United  States,  the  heri 
tage  of  coming  generations,  to  the  invasion 
of  slavery,  suddenly  revealed  the  whole 
significance  of  the  slavery  question  to  the 
people  of  the  free  States,  and  thrust  itself 
into  the  politics  of  the  country  as  the  par 
amount  issue.  Something  like  an  electric 

4 

shock  flashed  through  the  North.  Men 
who  but  a  short  time  before  had  been  ab 
sorbed  by  their  business  pursuits,  and  de 
precated  all  political  agitation,  were  star 
tled  out  of  their  security  by  a  sudden 
alarm,  and  excitedly  took  sides.  That  rest- 


Abraham  Lincoln  23 

less  trouble  of  conscience  about  slavery, 
which  even  in  times  of  apparent  repose 
had  secretly  disturbed  the  souls  of  North 
ern  people,  broke  forth  in  an  utterance 
louder  than  ever.  The  bonds  of  accus 
tomed  party  allegiance  gave  way.  Anti- 
slavery  Democrats  and  anti-slavery  Whigs 
felt  themselves  drawn  together  by  a  com 
mon  overpowering  sentiment,  and  soon 
they  began  to  rally  in  a  new  organization. 
The  Republican  party  sprang  into  being  to 
meet  the  overruling  call  of  the  hour.  Then 
Abraham  Lincoln's  time  was  come.  He 
rapidly  advanced  to  a  position  of  conspicu 
ous  championship  in  the  struggle.  This, 
however,  was  not  owing  to  his  virtues  and 
abilities  alone.  Indeed,  the  slavery  ques 
tion  stirred  his  soul  in  its  profoundest 
depths ;  it  was,  as  one  of  his  intimate 
friends  said,  "the  only  one  on  which  he 
would  become  excited ; "  it  called  forth  al) 
his  faculties  and  energies.  Yet  there  were 
many  others  who,  having  long  and  ardu 
ously  fought  the  anti-slavery  battle  in  the 


24  Abraham  Lincoln 

popular  assembly,  or  in  the  press,  or  in 
the  halls  of  Congress,  far  surpassed  him  in 
prestige,  and  compared  with  whom  he  was 
still  an  obscure  and  untried  man.  His  re 
putation,  although  highly  honorable  and 
well  earned,  had  so  far  been  essentially 
local.  As  a  stump-speaker  in  Whig  can 
vasses  outside  of  his  State  he  had  attracted 
comparatively  little  attention  ;  but  in  Illi 
nois  he  had  been  recognized  as  one  of  the 
foremost  men  of  the  Whig  party.  Among 
the  opponents  of  the  Nebraska  bill  he  oc 
cupied  in  his  State  so  important  a  position, 
that  in  1854  he  was  the  choice  of  a  large 
majority  of  the  "Anti-Nebraska  men"  in 
the  legislature  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  which  then  became 
vacant ;  and  when  he,  an  old  Whig,  could 
not  obtain  the  votes  of  the  Anti-Nebraska 
Democrats  necessary  to  make  a  majority, 
he  generously  urged  his  friends  to  trans 
fer  their  votes  to  Lyman  Trumbull,  who 
was  then  elected.  Two  years  later,  in  the 
first  national  convention  of  the  Republican 


Abraham  Lincoln  25 

party,  the  delegation  from  Illinois  brought 
him  forward  as  a  candidate  for  the  vice- 
presidency,  and  he  received  respectable 
support.  Still,  the  name  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln  was  not  widely  known  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  his  own  State.  But  now  it 
was  this  local  prominence  in  Illinois  that 
put  him  in  a  position  of  peculiar  advan 
tage  on  the  battlefield  of  national  politics. 
In  the  assault  on  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise  which  broke  down  all  legal  barriers 
to  the  spread  of  slavery,  Stephen  Arnold 
Douglas  was  the  ostensible  leader  and  cen 
tral  figure ;  and  Douglas  was  a  Senator 
from  Illinois,  Lincoln's  State.  Douglas's 
national  theatre  of  action  was  the  Senate, 
but  in  his  constituency  in  Illinois  were  the 
roots  of  his  official  position  and  power. 
What  he  did  in  the  Senate  he  had  to  jus 
tify  before  the  people  of  Illinois,  in  order 
to  maintain  himself  in  place  ;  and  in  Illi 
nois  all  eyes  turned  to  Lincoln  as  Doug 
las's  natural  antagonist. 

As  very  young  men  they  had  come  to 


26  Abraham  Lincoln 

Illinois,  Lincoln  from  Indiana,  Douglas 
from  Vermont,  and  had  grown  up  together 
in  public  life,  Douglas  as  a  Democrat,  Lin 
coln  as  a  Whig.  They  had  met  first  in 
Vandalia,  in  1834,  when  Lincoln  was  in  the 
legislature  and  Douglas  in  the  lobby ;  and 
again  in  1836,  both  as  members  of  the  leg 
islature.  Douglas,  a  very  able  politician, 
of  the  agile,  combative,  audacious,  "  push 
ing  "  sort,  rose  in  political  distinction  with 
remarkable  rapidity.  In  quick  succession 
he  became  a  member  of  the  legislature,  a 
State's  attorney,  secretary  of  state,  a  judge 
on  the  supreme  bench  of  Illinois,  three 
times  a  Representative  in  Congress,  and  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States  when  only 
thirty-nine  years  old.  In  the  national 
Democratic  convention  of  1852,  he  ap 
peared  even  as  an  aspirant  to  the  nomina 
tion  for  the  presidency,  as  the  favorite  of 
"young  America,"  and  received  a  respect 
able  vote.  He  had  far  outstripped  Lincoln 
in  what  is  commonly  called  political  suc 
cess  and  in  reputation.  But  it  had  fre- 


AbraJiam  Lincoln  27 

quently  happened  that  in  political  cam 
paigns  Lincoln  felt  himself  impelled,  or 
was  selected  by  his  Whig  friends,  to  an 
swer  Douglas's  speeches  ;  and  thus  the 
two  were  looked  upon,  in  a  large  part  of 
the  State  at  least,  as  the  representative 
combatants  of  their  respective  parties  in 
the  debates  before  popular  meetings.  As 
soon,  therefore,  as,  after  the  passage  of  his 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  Douglas  returned  to 
Illinois  to  defend  his  cause  before  his  con 
stituents,  Lincoln,  obeying  not  only  his 
own  impulse,  but  also  general  expectation, 
stepped  forward  as  his  principal  oppo 
nent.  Thus  the  struggle  about  the  princi 
ples  involved  in  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill, 
or,  in  a  broader  sense,  the  struggle  between 
freedom  and  slavery,  assumed  in  Illinois 
the  outward  form  of  a  personal  contest 
between  Lincoln  and  Douglas ;  and,  as  it 
continued  and  became  more  animated,  that 
personal  contest  in  Illinois  was  watched 
with  constantly  increasing  interest  by  the 
whole  country.  When,  in  1858,  Douglas's 


28  Abraham  Lincoln 

senatorial  term  being  about  to  expire,  Lin 
coln  was  formally  designated  by  the  Re 
publican  convention  of  Illinois  as  their 
candidate  for  the  Senate,  to  take  Douglas's 
place,  and  the  two  contestants  agreed  to 
debate  the  questions  at  issue  face  to  face 
in  a  series  of  public  meetings,  the  eyes  of 
the  whole  American  people  were  turned 
eagerly  to  that  one  point ;  and  the  specta 
cle  reminded  one  of  those  lays  of  ancient 
times  telling  of  two  armies,  in  battle  array, 
standing  still  to  see  their  two  principal 
champions  fight  out  the  contested  cause 
between  the  lines  in  single  combat. 

Lincoln  had  then  reached  the  full  matu 
rity  of  his  powers.  His  equipment  as  a 
statesman  did  not  embrace  a  comprehen 
sive  knowledge  of  public  affairs.  What  he 
had  studied  he  had  indeed  made  his  own, 
with  the  eager  craving  and  that  zealous 
tenacity  characteristic  of  superior  minds 
learning  under  difficulties.  But  his  narrow 
opportunities  and  the  unsteady  life  he  had 
led  during  his  younger  years  had  not  per- 


Abraham  Lincoln  29 

mitted  the 'accumulation  of  large  stores  in 
his  mind.  It  is  true,  in  political  campaigns 
he  had  occasionally  spoken  on  the  osten 
sible  issues  between  the  Whigs  and  the 
Democrats,  the  tariff:,  internal  improve 
ments,  banks,  and  so  on,  but  only  in  a  per 
functory  manner.  Had  he  ever  given 
much  serious  thought  and  study  to  these 
subjects,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  a  mind 
so  prolific  of  original  conceits  as  his  would 
certainly  have  produced  some  utterance 
upon  them  worth  remembering.  His  soul 
had  evidently  never  been  deeply  stirred  by 
such  topics.  But  when  his  moral  nature 
was  aroused,  his  brain  developed  an  untir 
ing  activity  until  it  had  mastered  all  the 
knowledge  within  reach.  As  soon  as  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  had 
thrust  the  slavery  question  into  politics  as 
the  paramount  issue,  Lincoln  plunged  into 
an  arduous  study  of  all  its  legal,  histori 
cal,  and  moral  aspects,  and  then  his  mind 
became  a  complete  arsenal  of  argument. 
His  rich  natural  gifts,  trained  by  long  and 


3O  Abraham  Lincoln 

varied  practice,  had  made  him  an  orator  of 
rare  persuasiveness.  In  his  immature  days, 
he  had  pleased  himself  for  a  short  period 
with  that  inflated,  high-flown  style  which, 
among  the  uncultivated,  passes  for  "beau 
tiful  speaking."  His  inborn  truthfulness 
and  his  artistic  instinct  soon  overcame  that 
aberration,  and  revealed  to  him  the  noble 
beauty  and  strength  of  simplicity.  He  pos 
sessed  an  uncommon  power  of  clear  and 
compact  statement,  which  might  have  re 
minded  those  who  knew  the  story  of  his 
early  youth,  of  the  efforts  of  the  poor  boy, 
when  he  copied  his  compositions  from  the 
scraped  wooden  shovel,  carefully  to  trim 
his  expressions  in  order  to  save  paper.  His 
language  had  the  energy  of  honest  direct 
ness,  and  he  was  a  master  of  logical  lucid 
ity.  He  loved  to  point  and  enliven  his 
reasoning  by  humorous  illustrations,  usu 
ally  anecdotes  of  Western  life,  of  which 
he  had  an  inexhaustible  store  at  his  com 
mand.  These  anecdotes  had  not  seldom  a 
flavor  of  rustic  robustness  about  them,  but 


Abraham  Lincoln  31 

he  used  them  with  great  effect,  while  amus 
ing  the  audience,  to  give  life  to  an  abstrac 
tion,  to  explode  an  absurdity,  to  clinch 
an  argument,  to  drive  home  an  admoni 
tion.  The  natural  kindliness  of  his  tone, 
softening  prejudice  and  disarming  parti 
san  rancor,  would  often  open  to  his  rea 
soning  a  way  into  minds  most  unwilling  to 
receive  it. 

Yet  his  greatest  power  consisted  in  the 
charm  of  his  individuality.  That  charm 
did  not,  in  the  ordinary  way,  appeal  to  the 
ear  or  to  the  eye.  His  voice  was  not  melo 
dious  ;  rather  shrill  and  piercing,  especially 
when  it  rose  to  its  high  treble  in  moments 
of  great  animation.  His  figure  was  un 
handsome,  and  the  action  of  his  unwieldy 
limbs  awkward.'  He  commanded  none  of 
the  outward  graces  of  oratory  as  they  are 
commonly  understood.  His  charm  was  of 
a  different  kind.  It  flowed  from  the  rare 
depth  and  genuineness  of  his  convictions 
and  his  sympathetic  feelings.  Sympathy 
was  the  strongest  element  in  his  nature. 


32  Abraham  Lincoln 

One  of  his  biographers,  who  knew  him 
before  he  became  President,  says  :  "  Lin 
coln's  compassion  might  be  stirred  deeply 
by  an  object  present,  but  never  by  an 
object  absent  and  unseen.  In  the  former 
case  he  would  most  likely  extend  relief, 
with  little  inquiry  into  the  merits  of  the 
case,  because,  as  he  expressed  it  himself, 
it  'took  a  pain  out  of  his  own  heart/' 
Only  half  of  this  is  correct.  It  is  certainly 
true  that  he  could  not  witness  any  individ 
ual  distress  or  oppression,  or  any  kind  of 
suffering,  without  feeling  a  pang  of  pain 
himself,  and  that  by  relieving  as  much  as 
he  could  the  suffering  of  others  he  put  an 
end  to  his  own.  This  compassionate  im 
pulse  to  help  he  felt  not  only  for  human 
beings,  but  for  every  living  creature.  As 
in  his  boyhood  he  angrily  reproved  the 
boys  who  tormented  a  wood  turtle  by  put 
ting  a  burning  coal  on  its  back,  so,  we  are 
told,  he  would,  when  a  mature  man,  on  a 
journey,  dismount  from  his  buggy  and 
wade  waist-deep  in  mire  to  rescue  a  pig 


Abraham  Lincoln  33 

struggling  in  a  swamp.  Indeed,  appeals  to 
his  compassion  were  so  irresistible  to  him, 
and  he  felt  it  so  difficult  to  refuse  anything 
when  his  refusal  could  give  pain,  that  he 
himself  sometimes  spoke  of  his  inability  to 
say  "  no  "  as  a  positive  weakness.  But  that 
certainly  does  not  prove  that  his  compas 
sionate  feeling  was  confined  to  individual 
cases  of  suffering  witnessed  with  his  own 
eyes.  As  the  boy  was  moved  by  the  as 
pect  of  the  tortured  wood  turtle  to  com 
pose  an  essay  against  cruelty  to  animals  in 
general,  so  the  aspect  of  other  cases  of  suf 
fering  and  wrong  wrought  up  his  moral 
nature,  and  set  his  mind  to  work  against 
cruelty,  injustice,  and  oppression  in  gen 
eral. 

As  his  sympathy  went  forth  to  others,  it 
attracted  others  to  him.  Especially  those 
whom  he  called  the  "plain  people"  felt 
themselves  drawn  to  him  by  the  instinc 
tive  feeling  that  he  understood,  esteemed, 
and  appreciated  them.  He  had  grown  up 
among  the  poor,  the  lowly,  the  ignorant 


34  Abraham  Lincoln 

He  never  ceased  to  remember  the  good 
souls  he  had  met  among  them,  and  the 
many  kindnesses  they  had  done  him.  Al 
though  in  his  mental  development  he  had 
risen  far  above  them,  he  never  looked  down 
upon  them.  How  they  felt  and  how  they 
reasoned  he  knew,  for  so  he  had  once  felt 
and  reasoned  himself.  How  they  could  be 
moved  he  knew,  for  so  he  had  once  been 
moved  himself  and  practiced  moving  oth 
ers.  His  mind  was  much  larger  than 
theirs,  but  it  thoroughly  comprehended 
theirs  ;  and  while  he  thought  much  farther 
than  they,  their  thoughts  were  ever  present 
to  him.  Nor  had  the  visible  distance  be 
tween  them  grown  as  wide  as  his  rise  in 
the  world  would  seem  to  have  warranted. 
-Much  of  his  backwoods  speech  and  man 
ners  still  clung  to  him.  Although  he  had 
become  "  Mr.  Lincoln "  to  his  later  ac 
quaintances,  he  was  still" Abe"  to  the 
"  Nats  "  and  "  Billys  "  and  "  Daves  "  of  his 
youth ;  and  their  familiarity  neither  ap 
peared  unnatural  to  them,  nor  was  it  in 


Abraham  Lincoln  35 

the  least  awkward  to  him.  He  still  told 
and  enjoyed  stories  similar  to  those  he  had 
told  and  enjoyed  in  the  Indiana  settlement 
and  at  New  Salem.  His  wants  remained 
as  modest  as  they  had  ever  been ;  his  do 
mestic  habits  had  by  no  means  complete 
ly  accommodated  themselves  to  those  of 
his  more  highborn  wife ;  and  though  the 
"  Kentucky  jeans  "  apparel  had  long  been 
dropped,  his  clothes  of  better  material  and 
better  make  would  sit  ill  sorted  on  his  gi 
gantic  limbs.  His  cotton  umbrella,  without 
a  handle,  and  tied  together  with  a  coarse 
string  to  keep  it  from  flapping,  which  he 
carried  on  his  circuit  rides,  is  said  to  be  re 
membered  still  by  some  of  his  surviving 
neighbors.  This  rusticity  of  habit  was  ut 
terly  free  from  that  affected  contempt  of 
Refinement  and  comfort  which  self-made 
men  sometimes  carry  into  their  more  afflu 
ent  circumstances.  To  Abraham  Lincoln 
it  was  entirely  natural,  and  all  those  who 
came  into  contact  with  him  knew  it  to  be 
so.  In  his  ways  of  thinking  and  feeling  he 


36  AbraJiam  Lincoln 

had  become  a  gentleman  in  the  highest 
sense,  but  the  refining  process  had  polished 
but  little  the  outward  form.  The  plain 
people,  therefore,  still  considered  "  honest 
Abe  Lincoln "  one  of  themselves ;  and 
when  they  felt,  which  they  no  doubt  fre 
quently  did,  that  his  thoughts  and  aspira 
tions  moved  in  a  sphere  above  their  own, 
they  were  all  the  more  proud  of  him,  with 
out  any  diminution  of  fellow-feeling.  It 
was  this  relation  of  mutual  sympathy  and 
understanding  between  Lincoln  and  the 
plain  people  that  gave  him  his  peculiar 
power  as  a  public  man,  and  singularly  fitted 
him,  as  we  shall  see,  for  that  leadership 
which  was  preeminently  required  in  the 
great  crisis  then  coming  on,  —  the  leader 
ship  which  indeed  thinks  and  moves  ahead 
of  the  masses,  but  always  remains  within 
sight  and  sympathetic  touch  of  them. 

He  entered  upon  the  campaign  of  1858 
better  equipped  than  he  had  ever  been  be 
fore.  He  not  only  instinctively  felt,  but  he 
had  convinced  himself  by  arduous  study, 


Abraham  Lincoln  37 

that  in  this  struggle  against  the  spread  of 
slavery  he  had  right,  justice,  philosophy, 
the  enlightened  opinion  of  mankind,  his 
tory,  the  Constitution,  and  good  policy  on 
his  side.  It  was  observed  that  after  he 
began  to  discuss  the  slavery  question  his 
speeches  were  pitched  in  a  much  loftier 
key  than  his  former  oratorical  efforts. 
While  he  remained  fond  of  telling  funny 
stories  in  private  conversation,  they  disap 
peared  more  and  more  from  his  public  dis 
course.  He  would  still  now  and  then  point 
his  argument  with  expressions  of  inimita 
ble  quaintness,  and  flash  out  rays  of  kindly 
humor  and  witty  irony  ;  but  his  general 
tone  was  serious,  and  rose  sometimes  to 
genuine  solemnity.  His  masterly  skill  in 
dialectical  thrust  and  parry,  his  wealth  of 
knowledge,  his  -power  of  reasoning  and  ele 
vation  of  sentiment,  disclosed  in  language 
of  rare  precision,  strength,  and  beauty,  not 
seldom  astonished  his  old  friends. 

Neither   of    the   two    champions.,  could 
have  found  a  more  formidable  antagonist 


38  Abraham  Lincoln 

than  each  now  met  in  the  other.  Douglas 
was  by  far  the  most  conspicuous  member 
of  his  party.  His  admirers  had  dubbed 
him  "  the  little  giant,"  contrasting  in  that 
nickname  the  greatness  of  his  mind  with 
the  smallness  of  his  body.  But  though  of 
low  stature,  his  broad-shouldered  figure  ap 
peared  uncommonly  sturdy,  and  there  was 
something  lionlike  in  the  squareness  of  his 
brow  and  jaw,  and  in  the  defiant  shake  of 
his  long  hair.  His  loud  and  persistent  ad 
vocacy  of  territorial  expansion,  in  the  name 
of  patriotism  and  "  manifest  destiny,"  had 
given  him  an  enthusiastic  following  among 
the  young  and  ardent.  Great  natural  parts, 
a  highly  combative  temperament,  and  long 
training  had  made  him  a  debater  unsur 
passed  in  a  Senate  filled  with  able  men. 
He  could  be  as  forceful  in  his  appeals  to 
patriotic  feelings  as  he  was  fierce  in  de 
nunciation  and  thoroughly  skilled  in  all  the 
baser  tricks  of  parliamentary  pugilism. 
While  genial  and  rollicking  in  his  social  in 
tercourse,  —  the  idol  of  the  "  boys,"  —  he 


Abraham  Lincoln  39 

felt  himself  -one  of  the  most  renowned 
statesmen  of  his  time,  and  would  fre 
quently  meet  his  opponents  with  an  over 
bearing  haughtiness,  as  persons  more  to  be 
pitied  than  to  be  feared.  In  his  speech 
opening  the  campaign  of  1858,  he  spoke 
of  Lincoln,  whom  the  Republicans  had 
dared  to  advance  as  their  candidate  for 
"  his "  place  in  the  Senate,  with  an  air 
of  patronizing  if  not  contemptuous  conde 
scension,  as  "  a  kind,  amiable,  and  intelli 
gent  gentleman  and  a  good  citizen."  The 
little  giant  would  have  been  pleased  to  pass 
off  his  antagonist  as  a  tall  dwarf.  He 
knew  Lincoln  too  well,  however,  to  indulge 
himself  seriously  in  such  a  delusion.  But 
the  political  situation  was  at  that  moment 
in  a  curious  tangle,  and  Douglas  could  ex 
pect  to  derive  from  the  confusion  great 
advantage  over  his  opponent. 

By  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise,  opening  the  Territories  to  the  ingress 
of  slavery,  Douglas  had  pleased  the  South, 
but  greatly  alarmed  the  North.  He  had 


4O  AbraJiam  Lincoln 

sought  to  conciliate  Northern  sentiment 
by  appending  to  his  Kansas-Nebraska  bill 
the  declaration  that  its  intent  was  "  not  to 
legislate  slavery  into  any  State  or  Terri 
tory,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to 
leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to 
form  and  regulate  their  institutions  in  their 
own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States."  This  he  called 
"  the  great  principle  of  popular  sover 
eignty."  When  asked  whether,  under  this 
act,  the  people  of  a  Territory,  before  its 
admission  as  a  State,  would  have  the  right 
to  exclude  slavery,  he  answered,  "  That  is 
a  question  for  the  courts  to  decide."  Then 
came  the  famous  "Dred  Scott  decision," 
in  which  the  Supreme  Court  held  substan 
tially  that  the  right  to  hold  slaves  as  prop 
erty  existed  in  the  Territories  by  virtue  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  and  that  this 
right  could  not  be  denied  by  any  act  of 
a  territorial  government.  This,  of  course, 
denied  the  right  of  the  people  of  any  Ter 
ritory  to  exclude  slavery  while  they  were 


Abraham  Lincoln  41 

in  a  territorial  condition,  and  it  alarmed 
the  Northern  people  still  more.  Douglas 
recognized  the  binding  force  of  the  deci 
sion  of  the  Supreme  Court,  at  the  same 
time  maintaining,  most  illogically,  that  his 
great  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  re 
mained  in  force  nevertheless.  Meanwhile, 
the  proslavery  people  of  western  Missouri, 
the  so-called  "  border  ruffians,"  had  in 
vaded  Kansas,  set  up  a  constitutional  con 
vention,  made  a  constitution  of  an  extreme 
proslavery  type,  the  "  Lecompton  Consti 
tution,"  refused  to  submit  it  fairly  to  a  vote 
of  the  people  of  Kansas,  and  then  referred 
it  to  Congress  for  acceptance,  —  seeking 
thus  to  accomplish  the  admission  of  Kan 
sas  as  a  slave  State.  Had  Douglas  sup 
ported  such  a  scheme,  he  would  have  lost 
all  foothold  in  the  North.  In  the  name  of 
popular  sovereignty  he  loudly  declared  his 
opposition  to  the  acceptance  of  any  consti 
tution  not  sanctioned  by  a  formal  popular 
vote.  He  "did  not  care,"  he  said,  "whether 
slavery  be  voted  up  or  down,"  but  there 


42  Abraham  Lincoln 

must  be  a  fair  vote  of  the  people.  Thus 
he  drew  upon  himself  the  hostility  of  the 
Buchanan  administration,  which  was  con 
trolled  by  the  proslavery  interest,  but  he 
saved  his  Northern  following.  More  than 
this,  not  only  did  his  Democratic  admirers 
now  call  him  "  the  true  champion  of  free 
dom,"  but  even  some  Republicans  of  large 
influence,  prominent  among  them  Horace 
Greeley,  sympathizing  with  Douglas  in  his 
fight  against  the  Lecompton  Constitution, 
and  hoping  to  detach  him  permanently 
from  the  proslavery  interest  and  to  force 
a  lasting  breach  in  the  Democratic  party, 
seriously  advised  the  Republicans  of  Illi 
nois  to  give  up  their  opposition  to  Douglas, 
and  to  help  reelect  him  to  the  Senate. 
Lincoln  was  not  of  that  opinion.  He  be- 
•lieved  that  great  popular  movements  can 
succeed  only  when  guided  by  their  faithful 
friends,  and  that  the  anti-slavery  cause 
could  not  safely  be  entrusted  to  the  keep 
ing  of  one  who  "  did  not  care  whether 
slavery  be  voted  up  or  down."  This  opin- 


AbraJiam  Lincoln  43 

ion  prevailed 'in  Illinois  ;  but  the  influences 
within  the  Republican  party,  over  which  it 
prevailed,  yielded  only  a  reluctant  acqui 
escence,  if  they  acquiesced  at  all,  after 
having  materially  strengthened  Douglas's 
position.  Such  was  the  situation  of  things 
when  the  campaign  of  1858  between  Lin 
coln  and  Douglas  began. 

Lincoln  opened  the  campaign  on  his  side 
at  the  convention  which  nominated  him 
as  the  Republican  candidate  for  the  sena- 
torship,  with  a  memorable  saying  which 
sounded  like  a  shout  from  the  watch-tower 
of  history :  "  A  house  divided  against  it 
self  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  govern 
ment  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave 
and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union 
to  be  dissolved.  I  do  not  expect  the  house 
to  fall,  but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  di 
vided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all 
the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  sla 
very  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and 
'  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in 
the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ulti- 


44  Abraham  Lincoln 

mate  extinction  ;  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward,  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful 
in  all  the  States,  —  old  as  well  as  new, 
North  as  well  as  South."  Then  he  pro 
ceeded  to  point  out  that  the  Nebraska  doc 
trine  combined  with  the  Dred  Scott  deci 
sion  worked  in  the  direction  of  making  the 
nation  "  all  slave."  Here  was  the  "  irre 
pressible  conflict "  spoken  of  by  Seward  a 
short  time  later,  in  a  speech  made  famous 
mainly  by  that  phrase.  If  there  was  any 
new  discovery  in  it,  the  right  of  priority 
was  Lincoln's.  This  utterance  proved  not 
only  his  statesmanlike  conception  of  the 
issue,  but  also,  in  his  situation  as  a  candi 
date,  the  firmness  of  his  moral  courage. 
The  friends  to  whom  he  had  read  the 
draught  of  this  speech  before  he  delivered 
it  warned  him  anxiously  that  its  delivery 
might  be  fatal  to  its  success  in  the  elec 
tion.  This  was  shrewd  advice,  in  the  or 
dinary  sense.  While  a  slaveholder  could 
threaten  disunion  with  impunity,  the  mere 
suggestion  that  the  existence  of  slavery  was 


Abraham  Lincoln  45 

incompatible  with  freedom  in  the  Union 
would  hazard  the  political  chances  of  any 
public  man  in  the  North.  But  Lincoln 
was  inflexible.  "  It  is  true,"  said  he,  "  and 
I  will  deliver  it  as  written.  ...  I  would 
rather  be  defeated  with  these  expressions 
in  my  speech  held  up  and  discussed  before 
the  people  than  be  victorious  without 
them."  The  statesman  was  right  in  his 
far-seeing  judgment  and  his  conscientious 
statement  of  the  truth,  but  the  practical 
politicians  were  also  right  in  their  predic 
tion  of  the  immediate  effect.  Douglas  in 
stantly  seized  upon  the  declaration  that  a 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand 
as  the  main  objective  point  of  his  attack, 
interpreting  it  as  an  incitement  to  a  "re 
lentless  sectional  war,"  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  persistent  reiteration  of  this 
charge  served  to  frighten  not  a  few  timid 
souls. 

Lincoln  constantly  endeavored  to  bring 
the  moral  and  philosophical  side  of  the 
subject  to  the  foreground.  "  Slavery  is 


46  Abraham  Lincoln 

wrong  "  was  the  keynote  of  all  his  speeches. 
To  Douglas's  glittering  sophism  that  the 
right  of  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  have 
slavery  or  not,  as  they  might  desire,  was  in 
accordance  with  the  principle  of  true  pop 
ular  sovereignty,  he  made  the  pointed  an 
swer  :  "  Then  true  popular  sovereignty, 
according  to  Senator  Douglas,  means  that, 
when  one  man  makes  another  man  his 
slave,  no  third  man  shall  be  allowed  to  ob 
ject."  To  Douglas's  argument  that  the 
principle  which  demanded  that  the  people 
of  a  Territory  should  be  permitted  to 
choose  whether  they  would  have  slavery  or 
not  "  originated  when  God  made  man,  and 
placed  good  and  evil  before  him,  allowing 
him  to  choose  upon  his  own  responsibility," 
Lincoln  solemnly  replied  :  "  No  ;  God  did 
not  place  good  and  evil  before  man,  telling 
him  to  make  his  choice.  On  the  contrary, 
God  did  tell  him  there  was  one  tree  of  the 
fruit  of  which  he  should  not  eat,  upon  pain 
of  death."  He  did  not,  however,  place 
himself  on  the  most  advanced  ground  taken 


Abraham  Lincoln  47 

by  the  radical  anti-slavery  men.  He  ad 
mitted  that,  under  the  Constitution,  "  the 
Southern  people  were  entitled  to  a  con 
gressional  fugitive  slave  law,"  although  he 
did  not  approve  the  fugitive  slave  law  then 
existing.  He  declared  also  that,  if  slavery 
were  kept  out  of  the  Territories  during 
their  territorial  existence,  as  it  should  be, 
and  if  then  tht  people  of  any  Territory, 
having  a  fair  chance  and  a  clear  field, 
should  do  such  an  extraordinary  thing  as 
to  adopt  a  slave  constitution,  uninfluenced 
by  the  actual  presence  of  the  institution 
among  them,  he  saw  no  alternative  but  to 
admit  such  a  Territory  into  the  Union. 
He  declared  further  that,  while  he  should 
be  exceedingly  glad  to  see  slavery  abolished 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  he  would,  as 
a  member  of  Congress,  with  his  present , 
views,  not  endeavor  to  bring  on  that  aboli 
tion  except  on  condition  that  emancipation 
be  gradual,  that  it  be  approved  by  the  de 
cision  of  a  majority  of  voters  in  the  Dis 
trict,  and  that  compensation  be  made  to 


48  Abraham  Lincoln 

unwilling  owners.  On  every  available  oc 
casion,  he  pronounced  himself  in  favor  of 
the  deportation  and  colonization  of  the 
blacks,  of  course  with  their  consent.  He 
repeatedly  disavowed  any  wish  on  his  part 
to  have  social  and  political  equality  estab 
lished  between  whites  and  blacks.  On  this 
point  he  summed  up  his  views  in  a  reply 
to  Douglas's  assertion  that  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  in  speaking  of  all  men 
as  being  created  equal,  did  not  include  the 
negroes,  saying  :  "  I  do  not  understand  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  to  mean  that 
all  men  were  created  equal  in  all  respects. 
They  are  not  equal  in  color.  But  I  believe 
that  it  does  mean  to  declare  that  all  men 
are  equal  in  some  respects  ;  they  are  equal 
in  their  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
,suit  of  happiness." 

With  regard  to  some  of  these  subjects 
Lincoln  modified  his  position  at  a  later 
period,  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  he 
would  have  professed  more  advanced  prin 
ciples  in  his  debates  with  Douglas,  had  he 


Abraham  Lincoln  49 

^ : , 

not  feared  thereby  to  lose  votes.  This 
view  can  hardly  be  sustained.  Lincoln 
had  the  courage  of  his  opinions,  but  he 
was  not  a  radical.  The  man  who  risked 
his  election  by  delivering,  against  the  ur 
gent  protest  of  his  friends,  the  speech 
about  "  the  house  divided  against  itself  " 
would  not  have  shrunk  from  the  expression 
of  more  extreme  views,  had  he  really  en 
tertained  them.  It  is  only  fair  to  assume 
that  he  said  what  at  the  time  he  really 
thought,  and  that  if,  subsequently,  his  opin 
ions  changed,  it  was  owing  to  new  concep 
tions  of  good  policy  and  of  duty  brought 
forth  by  an  entirely  new  set  of  circum 
stances  and  exigencies.  It  is  characteristic 
that  he  continued  to  adhere  to  the  imprac 
ticable  colonization  plan  even  after  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  had  already 
been  issued. 

But  in  this  contest  Lincoln  proved  him 
self  not  only  a  debater,  but  also  a  political 
strategist  of  the  first  order.  The  "kind, 
amiable,  and  intelligent  gentleman,"  as 


50  Abraham  Lincoln 

Douglas  had  been  pleased  to  call  him,  was 
by  no  means  as  harmless  as  a  dove.  He 
possessed  an  uncommon  share  of  that 
worldly  shrewdness  which  not  seldom  goes 
with  genuine  simplicity  of  character ;  and 
the  political  experience  gathered  in  the 
legislature  and  in  Congress,  and  in  many 
election  campaigns,  added  to  his  keen  in 
tuitions,  had  made  him  as  far-sighted  a 
judge  of  the  probable  effects  of  a  public 
man's  sayings  or  doings  upon  the  popular 
mind,  and  as  accurate  a  calculator  in  esti 
mating  political  chances  and  forecasting 
results,  as  could  be  found  among  the  party 
managers  in  Illinois.  And  now  he  perceived 
keenly  the  ugly  dilemma  in  which  Douglas 
found  himself,  between  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  which  declared  the  right  to  hold 
slaves  to  exist  in  the  Territories  by  virtue 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  his  "great 
principle  of  popular  sovereignty,"  accord 
ing  to  which  the  people  of  a  Territory,  if 
they  saw  fit,  were  to  have  the  right  to 
exclude  slavery  therefrom.  Douglas  was 


Abraham  Lincoln  51 

twisting  and  squirming  to  the  best  of  his 
ability  to  avoid  the  admission  that  the  two 
were  incompatible.  The  question  then  pre 
sented  itself  if  it  would  be  good  policy 
for  Lincoln  to  force  Douglas  to  a  clear  ex 
pression  of  his  opinion  as  to  whether,  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  notwithstanding,  "the 
people  of  a  Territory  could  in  any  lawful 
way  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior 
to  the  formation  of  a  state  constitution." 
Lincoln  foresaw  and  predicted  what  Doug 
las  would  answer :  that  slavery  could  not 
exist  in  a  Territory  unless  the  people  de 
sired  it  and  gave  it  protection  by  territo 
rial  legislation.  In  an  improvised  caucus 
the  policy  of  pressing  the  interrogatory  on 
Douglas  was  discussed.  Lincoln's  friends 
unanimously  advised  against  it,  because 
the  answer  foreseen  would  sufficiently  com 
mend  Douglas  to  the  people  of  Illinois  to 
insure  his  reelection  to  the  Senate.  But 
Lincoln  persisted.  "  I  am  after  larger 
game,"  said  he.  "If  Douglas  so  answers, 
he  can  never  be  President,  and  the  battle 


52  Abraham  Lincoln 

of  1860  is  worth  a  hundred  of  this."  The 
interrogatory  was  pressed  upon  Douglas, 
and  Douglas  did  answer  that,  no  matter 
what  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court 
might  be  on  the  abstract  question,  the  peo 
ple  of  a  Territory  had  the  lawful  means  to 
introduce  or  exclude  slavery  by  territorial 
legislation  friendly  or  unfriendly  to  the 
institution.  Lincoln  found  it  easy  to  show 
the  absurdity  of  the  proposition  that,  if 
slavery  were  admitted  to  exist  of  right  in 
the  Territories  by  virtue  of  the  supreme 
law,  the  Federal  Constitution,  it  could  not 
be  kept  out  or  expelled  by  an  inferior 
law,  one  made  by  a  territorial  legislature^. 
Again  the  judgment  of  the  politicians, 
having  only  the  nearest  object  in  view, 
proved  correct  :  Douglas  was  reflected  to 
the  Senate.  But  Lincoln's  judgment  proved 
correct  also :  Douglas,  by  resorting  to  the 
expedient  of  his  "unfriendly  legislation 
doctrine,"  forfeited  his  last  chance  of  be 
coming  President  of  the  United  States. 
He  might  have  hoped  to  win,  by  sufficient 


Abraham  Lincoln  53 

atonement,  his  pardon  from  the  South  for 
his  opposition  to  the  Lecompton  Constitu 
tion  ;  but  that  he  taught  the  people  of  the 
Territories  a  trick  by  which  they  could  de 
feat  what  the  pro-slavery  men  considered 
a  constitutional  right,  and  that  he  called 
that  trick  lawful,  —  this  the  slave  power 
would  never  forgive.  The  breach  between 
the  Southern  and  the  Northern  democracy 
was  thenceforth  irremediable  and  fatal. 

The  presidential  election  of  1860  ap 
proached.  The  struggle  in  Kansas,  and 
the  debates  in  Congress  which  accompa 
nied  it,  and  which  not  unfrequently  pro 
voked  violent  outbursts,  continually  stirred 
the  popular  excitement.  Within  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  raged  the  war  of  factions., 
The  national  Democratic  convention  met 
at  Charleston  on  the  23d  of  April,  1860. 
After  a  struggle  of  ten  days  between  the 
adherents  and  the  opponents  of  Douglas, 
during  which  the  delegates  from  the  cot 
ton  States  had  withdrawn,  the  convention 
adjourned  without  having  nominated  any 


54  Abraham  Lincoln 

candidates,  to  meet  again  in  Baltimore  on 
the  1 8th  of  June.  There  was  no  prospect, 
however,  of  reconciling  the  hostile  ele 
ments.  It  appeared  very  probable  that 
the  Baltimore  convention  would  nominate 
Douglas,  while  the  seceding  Southern 
Democrats  would  set  up  a  candidate  of 
their  own,  representing  extreme  pro-slavery 
principles. 

Meanwhile,  the  national  Republican  con 
vention  assembled  at  Chicago  on  the  i6th 
of  May,  full  of  enthusiasm  and  hope.  The 
situation  was  easily  understood.  The  Dem 
ocrats  would  have  the  South.  In  order  to 
succeed  in  the  election,  the  Republicans 
had  to  win,  in  addition  to  the  States  car 
ried  by  Fremont  in  1856,  those  that  were 
classed  as  "  doubtful,"  —  New  Jersey,  Penn 
sylvania,  and  Indiana,  or  Illinois  in  the 
place  of  either  New  Jersey  or  Indiana. 
The  most  eminent  Republican  statesmen 
and  leaders  of  the  time  thought  of  for  the 
presidency  were  Seward  and  Chase,  both 
regarded  as  belonging  to  the  more  ad- 


Abraham  Lincoln  55 

vanced  order  of  anti-slavery  men.  Of  the 
two,  Seward  had  the  largest  following,  main 
ly  from  New  York,  New  England,  and  the 
Northwest.  Cautious  politicians  doubted 
seriously  whether  Seward,  to  whom  some 
phrases  in  his  speeches  had  undeservedly 
given  the  reputation  of  a  reckless  radi 
cal,  would  be  able  to  command  the  whole 
Republican  vote  in  the  doubtful  States. 
Besides,  during  his  long  public  career  he 
had  made  enemies.  It  was  evident  that 
those  who  thought  Seward's  nomination  too 
hazardous  an  experiment,  would  consider 
Chase  unavailable  for  the  same  reason. 
They  would  then  look  round  for  an  "  avail 
able  "  man;  and  among  the  "available" 
men  Abraham  Lincoln  was  easily  discov 
ered  to  stand  foremost.  His  great  debate 
with  Douglas  had  given  him  a  national 
reputation.  The  people  of  the  East  being 
eager  to  see  the  hero  of  so  dramatic  a  con 
test,  he  had  been  induced  to  visit  several 
Eastern  cities,  and  had  astonished  and  de 
lighted  large  and  distinguished  audiences 


56  Abraham  Lincoln 

with  speeches  of  singular  power  and  ori 
ginality.  An  address  delivered  by  him  in 
the  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York,  before 
an  audience  containing  a  large  number  of 
important  persons,  was  then,  and  has  ever 
since  been,  especially  praised  as  one  of 
the  most  logical  and  convincing  political 
speeches  ever  made  in  this  country.  The 
people  of  the  West  had  grown  proud  of 
him  as  a  distinctively  Western  great  man, 
and  his  popularity  at  home  had  some  pecu 
liar  features  which  could  be  expected  to 
exercise  a  potent  charm.  Nor  was  Lin 
coln's  name  as  that  of  an  available  candi 
date  left  to  the  chance  of  accidental  discov 
ery.  It  is  indeed  not  probable  that  he 
thought  of  himself  as  a  presidential  possi 
bility,  during  his  contest  with  Douglas  for 
the  senatorship.  As  late  as  April,  1859, 
he  had  written  to  a  friend  who  had  ap 
proached  him  on  the  subject  that  he  did 
not  think  himself  fit  for  the  presidency. 
The  vice-presidency  was  then  the  limit  of 
his  ambition.  But  some  of  his  friends  in 


Abraham  Lincoln  57 

Illinois  took  the  matter  seriously  in  hand, 
and  Lincoln,  after  some  hesitation,  then 
formally  authorized  "  the  use  of  his  name." 
The  matter  was  managed  with  such  energy 
and  excellent  judgment  that,  in  the  con 
vention,  he  had  not  only  the  whole  vote  of 
Illinois  to  start  with,  but  won  votes  on  all 
sides  without  offending  any  rival.  A  large 
majority  of  the  opponents  of  Seward  went 
over  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  gave  him 
the  nomination  on  the  third  ballot.  As 
had  been  foreseen,  Douglas  was  nominated 
by  one  wing  of  the  Democratic  party  at 
Baltimore,  while  the  extreme  pro-slavery 
wing  put  Breckinridge  into  the  field  as  its 
candidate.  After  a  campaign  conducted 
with  the  energy  of  genuine  enthusiasm  on 
the  anti-slavery  side  the  united  Republicans 
defeated  the  divided  Democrats,  and  Lin 
coln  was  elected  President  by  a  majority  of 
fifty-seven  votes  in  the  electoral  colleges. 

The  result  of  the  election  had  hardly 
been  declared  when  the  disunion  move 
ment  in  the  South,  long  threatened  and 


58  Abraham  Lincoln 

carefully  planned  and  prepared,  broke  out 
in  the  shape  of  open  revolt,  and  nearly  a 
month  before  Lincoln  could  be  inaugurated 
as  President  of  the  United  States  seven 
Southern  States  had  adopted  ordinances 
of  secession,  formed  an  independent  con 
federacy,  framed  a  constitution  for  it,  and 
elected  Jefferson  Davis  its  president,  ex 
pecting  the  other  slaveholding  States  soon 
to  join  them.  On  the  nth  of  February, 
1 86 1,  Lincoln  left  Springfield  for  Washing 
ton  ;  having,  with  characteristic  simplicity, 
asked  his  law  partner  not  to  change  the 
sign  of  the  firm  "  Lincoln  and  Herndon  " 
during  the  four  years'  unavoidable  absence 
of  the  senior  partner,  and  having  taken 
an  affectionate  and  touching  leave  of  his 
neighbors. 

The  situation  which  confronted  the  new 
President  was  appalling  :  the  larger  part 
of  the  South  in  open  rebellion,  the  rest  of 
the  slaveholding  States  wavering,  prepar 
ing  to  follow  ;  the  revolt  guided  by  deter 
mined,  daring,  and  skillful  leaders ;  the 


Abraham  Lincoln  59 

Southern  people,  apparently  full  of  enthu 
siasm  and  military  spirit,  rushing  to  arms, 
some  of  the  forts  and  arsenals  already  in 
their  possession ;  the  government  of  the 
Union,  before  the  accession  of  the  new 
President,  in  the  hands  of  men  some  of 
whom  actively  sympathized  with  the  revolt, 
while  others  were  hampered  by  their  tra 
ditional  doctrines  in  dealing  with  it,  and 
really  gave  it  aid  and  comfort  by  their  ir 
resolute  attitude  ;  all  the  departments  full 
of  "  Southern  sympathizers "  and  honey 
combed  with  disloyalty  ;  the  treasury  emp 
ty,  and  the  public  credit  at  the  lowest  ebb; 
the  arsenals  ill  supplied  with  arms,  if  not 
emptied  by  treacherous  practices  ;  the  reg 
ular  army  of  insignificant  strength,  dis 
persed  over  an  immense  surface,  and  de 
prived  of  some  of  its  best  officers  by  defec 
tion  ;  the  navy  small  and  antiquated.  But 
that  was  not  all.  The  threat  of  disunion 
had  so  often  been  resorted  to  by  the  slave 
power  in  years  gone  by  that  most  North 
ern  people  had  ceased  to  believe  in  its 


60  Abraham  Lincoln 

seriousness.  But  when  disunion  actually 
appeared  as  a  stern  reality,  something  like 
a  chill  swept  through  the  whole  Northern 
country.  A  cry  for  union  and  peace  at  any 
price  rose  on  all  sides.  Democratic  parti 
sanship  reiterated  this  cry  with  vociferous 
vehemence,  and  even  many  Republicans 
grew  afraid  of  the  victory  they  had  just 
achieved  at  the  ballot-box,  and  spoke  of 
compromise.  The  country  fairly  resounded 
with  the  noise  of  "  anti-coercion  meetings." 
Expressions  of  firm  resolution  from  deter 
mined  anti-slavery  men  were  indeed  not 
wanting,  but  they  were  for  a  while  almost 
drowned  by  a  bewildering  confusion  of  dis 
cordant  voices.  Even  this  was  not  all.  Po 
tent  influences  in  Europe,  with  an  ill-con 
cealed  desire  for  the  permanent  disruption 
of  the  American  Union,  eagerly  espoused 
the  cause  of  the  Southern  seceders,  and 
the  two  principal  maritime  powers  of  the 
Old  World  seemed  only  to  be  waiting  for  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  lend  them  a  help 
ing  hand. 


Abraham  Lincoln  61 

This  was  the  state  of  things  to  be  mas 
tered  by  "  honest  Abe  Lincoln  "  when  he 
took  his  seat  in  the  presidential  chair,  — 
"honest  Abe  Lincoln,"  who  was  so  good- 
natured  that  he  could  not  say  "  no  ;  "  the 
greatest  achievement  in  whose  life  had 
been  a  debate  on  the  slavery  question ; 
who  had  never  been  in  any  position  of 
power ;  who  was  without  the  slightest  ex 
perience  of  high  executive  duties,  and  who 
had  only  a  speaking  acquaintance  with  the 
men  upon  whose  counsel  and  cooperation 
he  was  to  depend.  Nor  was  his  accession 
to  power  under  such  circumstances  greeted 
with  general  confidence  even  by  the  mem 
bers  of  his  party.  While  he  had  indeed 
won  much  popularity,  many  Republicans, 
especially  among  those  who  had  advocated 
Seward's  nomination  for  the  presidency, 
saw  the  simple  "  Illinois  lawyer  "  take  the 
reins  of  government  with  a  feeling  little 
short  of  dismay.  The  orators  and  jour 
nals  of  the  opposition  were  ridiculing  and 
lampooning  him  without  measure.  Many 


62  Abraham  Lincoln 

people  actually  wondered  how  such  a  man 
could  dare  to  undertake  a  task  which,  as  he 
himself  had  said  to  his  neighbors  in  his 
parting  speech,  was  "more  difficult  than 
that  of  Washington  himself  had  been." 

But  Lincoln  brought  to  that  task,  aside 
from  other  uncommon  qualities,  the  first 
requisite,  —  an  intuitive  comprehension  of 
its  nature.  While  he  did  not  indulge  in 
the  delusion  that  the  Union  could  be  main 
tained  or  restored  without  a  conflict  of 
arms,  he  could  indeed  not  foresee  all  the 
problems  he  would  have  to  solve.  He  in 
stinctively  understood,  however,  by  what 
means  that  conflict  would  have  to  be  con 
ducted  by  the  government  of  a  democracy. 
He  knew  that  the  impending  war,  whether 
great  or  small,  would  not  be  like  a  foreign 
war,  exciting  a  united  national  enthusiasm, 
but  a  civil  war,  likely  to  fan  to  uncommon 
heat  the  animosities  of  party  even  in  the 
localities  controlled  by  the  government  ; 
that  this  war  would  have  to  be  carried  on, 
not  by  means  of  a  ready-made  machinery, 


AbraJtam  Lincoln  63 

ruled  by  an  undisputed,  absolute  will,  but 
by  means  to  be  furnished  by  the  voluntary 
action  of  the  people  :  —  armies  to  be  formed 
by   voluntary    enlistment ;  large    sums   of 
money  to  be  raised  by  the  people,  through 
their   representatives,    voluntarily    taxing 
themselves ;  trusts  of  extraordinary  power_ 
to  be  voluntarily  granted ;    and  war  mea 
sures,  not  seldom  restricting  the  rights  and 
liberties  to  which  the  citizen  was  accus 
tomed,  to  be  voluntarily  accepted  and  sub 
mitted  to  by  the  people,  or  at  least  a  large 
majority  of  them  ;  —  and  that  this  would 
have  to  be  kept  up  not  merely  during  a 
short   period   of    enthusiastic   excitement, 
but  possibly  through  weary  years  of  alter 
nating  success  and  disaster,  hope  and  de 
spondency.      He   knew  that    in   order   to 
steer   this  government    by  public  opinion 
successfully  through  all  the  confusion  cre 
ated  by  the  prejudices  and  doubts  and  dif 
ferences  of  sentiment  distracting  the  pop 
ular  mind,   and    so   to   propitiate,  inspire, 
mould,  organize,  unite,  and  guide  the  pop- 


64  Abraham  Lincoln 

ular  will  that  it  might  give  forth  all  the 
means  required  for  the  performance  of  his 
great  task,  he  would  have  to  take  into  ac 
count  all  the  influences  strongly  affecting 
the  current  of  popular  thought  and  feeling, 
and  to  direct  while  appearing  to  obey. 

This  was  the  kind  of  leadership  he  intui 
tively  conceived  to  be  needed  when  a  free 
people  were  to  be  led  forward  en  masse 
to  overcome  a  great  common  danger  under 
circumstances  of  appalling  difficulty,  —  the 
leadership  which  does  not  dash  ahead  with 
brilliant  daring,  no  matter  who  follows,  but 
which  is  intent  upon  rallying  all  the  avail 
able  forces,  gathering  in  the  stragglers, 
closing  up  the  column,  so  that  the  front 
may  advance  well  supported.  For  this 
leadership  Abraham  Lincoln  was  admirably 
fitted,  —  better  than  any  other  American 
statesman  of  his  day ;  for  he  understood 
the  plain  people,  with  all  their  loves  and 
hates,  their  prejudices  and  their  noble  im 
pulses,  their  weaknesses  and  their  strength, 
as  he  understood/  himself,  and  his  sympa- 


Abraham  Lincoln  65 

thetic  nature  was  apt  to  draw  their  sym 
pathy  to  him. 

His  inaugural  address  foreshadowed  his 
official  course  in  characteristic  manner. 
Although  yielding  nothing  in  point  of  prin 
ciple,  it  was  by  no  means  a  flaming  anti- 
slavery  manifesto,  such  as  would  have 
pleased  the  more  ardent  Republicans.  It 
was  rather  the  entreaty  of  a  sorrowing  fa 
ther  speaking  to  his  wayward  children.  In 
the  kindliest  language  he  pointed  out  to 
the  secessionists  how  ill  advised  their  at 
tempt  at  disunion  was,  and  why,  for  their 
own  sakes,  they  should  desist.  Almost 
plaintively,  he  told  them  that,  while  it  was 
not  their  duty  to  destroy  the  Union,  it  was 
his  sworn  duty  to  preserve  it ;  that  the 
least  he  could  do,  under  the  obligations  of 
his  oath,  was  to  possess  and  hold  the  pro 
perty  of  the  United  States  ;  that  he  hoped 
to  do  this  peaceably  ;  that  he  abhorred  war 
for  any  purpose,  and  that  they  would  have 
none  unless  they  themselves  were  the  ag 
gressors.  It  was  a  masterpiece  of  persua- 


66  Abraham  Lincoln 

siveness,  and,  while  Lincoln  had  accepted 
many  valuable  amendments  suggested  by 
Seward,  it  was  essentially  his  own.     Prob 
ably  Lincoln  himself   did  not   expect  his 
inaugural  address  to  have  any  effect  upon 
the  secessionists,  for  he  must  have  known 
them  to  be  resolved  upon  disunion  at  any 
cost.    But  it  was  an  appeal  to  the  wavering 
minds   in   the    North,   and  upon    them   it 
made  a  profound  impression.     Every  can 
did  man,  however  timid  and  halting,  had  to 
admit  that  the  President  was  bound  by  his 
oath  to  do  his  duty  ;  that  under  that  oath 
he  could  do  no  less  than  he  said  he  would 
do  ;  that  if  the  secessionists  resisted  such 
an  appeal  as  the  President  had  made,  they 
were  bent  upon  mischief,  and  that  the  gov 
ernment  must  be  supported  against  them. 
The   partisan    sympathy  with    the   South 
ern  insurrection  which  still  existed  in  the 
North  did  indeed  not  disappear,  but  it  di 
minished  perceptibly  under  the  influence  of 
such  reasoning.    Those  who  still  resisted  it 
did  so  at  the  risk  of  appearing  unpatriotic. 


Abraham  Lincoln  67 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that 
Lincoln   at    once    succeeded    in    pleasing 
everybody,  even  among  his  friends,  —  even 
among  those  nearest  to  him.     In  selecting 
his  cabinet,  which  he  did  substantially  be 
fore  he  left  Springfield  for  Washington,  he 
thought  it  wise  to  call  to  his  assistance  the 
strong  men  of  his  party,  especially  those 
who   had  given    evidence  of   the   support 
they  commanded  as  his  competitors  in  the 
Chicago  convention.     In  them  he  found  at 
the  same  time  representatives  of  the  differ 
ent    shades  of   opinion  within    the    party, 
and    of    the   different   elements  —  former 
Whigs  and  former  Democrats  —  from  which 
the  party  had  recruited   itself.     This  was 
sound  policy  under  the  circumstances.     It 
might    indeed    have    been    foreseen    that 
among  the  members  of  a  cabinet  so  com 
posed,  troublesome  disagreements  and  ri 
valries  would  break  out.     But  it  was  better 
for  the  President  to  have  these  strong  and 
ambitious  men  near  him  as  his  cooperators 
than  to  have  them  as  his  critics  in  Con- 


68  Abraliam  Lincoln 

gress,  where  their  differences  might  have 
been  composed  in  a  common  opposition  to 
him.  As  members  of  his  cabinet  he  could 
hope  to  control  them,  and  to  keep  them 
busily  employed  in  the  service  of  a  com 
mon  purpose,  if  he  had  the  strength  to  do 
so.  Whether  he  did  possess  this  strength 
was  soon  tested  by  a  singularly  rude  trial. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  fore 
most  members  of  his  cabinet,  Seward  and 
Chase,  the  most  eminent  Republican  states 
men,  had  felt  themselves  wronged  by  their 
party  when  in  its  national  convention  it 
preferred  to  them  for  the  presidency  a 
man  whom,  not  unnaturally,  they  thought 
greatly  their  inferior  in  ability  and  expe 
rience  as  well  as  in  service.  The  soreness 
of  that  disappointment  was  intensified 
when  they  saw  this  Western  man  in  the 
White  House,  with  so  much  of  rustic  man 
ner  and  speech  as  still  clung  to  him,  meet 
ing  his  fellow-citizens,  high  and  low,  on  a 
footing  of  equality,  with  the  simplicity  of 
his  good  nature  unburdened  by  any  con- 


Abraham  Lincoln  69 

ventional  dignity  of  deportment,  and  deal 
ing  with  the  great  business  of  state  in  an 
easy-going,  unmethodical,  and  apparently 
somewhat  irreverent  way.  They  did  not 
understand  such  a  man.  Especially  Sew- 
ard,  who,  as  Secretary  of  State,  considered 
himself  next  to  the  Chief  Executive,  and 
who  quickly  accustomed  himself  to  giving 
orders  and  making  arrangements  upon  his 
own  motion,  thought  it  necessary  that  he 
should  rescue  the  direction  of  public  affairs 
from  hands  so  unskilled,  and  take  full 
charge  of  them  himself.  At  the  end  of 
the  first  month  of  the  administration  he 
submitted  a  "  memorandum  ".  to  President 
Lincoln,  which  has  been  first  brought  to 
light  by  Nicolay  and  Hay,  and  is  one  of 
their  most  valuable  contributions  to  the 
history  of  those  days.  In  that  paper  Sew- 
ard  actually  told  the  President  that,  at  the 
end  of  a  month's  administration,  the  gov 
ernment  was  still  without  a  policy,  either 
domestic  or  foreign  ;  that  the  slavery  ques 
tion  should  be  eliminated  from  the  struggle 


70  Abraham  Lincoln 

about  the  Union  ;  that  the  matter  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  forts  and  other  posses 
sions  in  the  South  should  be  decided  with 
that  view ;  that  explanations  should  be 
demanded  categorically  from  the  govern 
ments  of  Spain  and  France,  which  were 
then  preparing,  one  for  the  annexation  of 
San  Domingo,  and  both  for  the  invasion  of 
Mexico ;  that  if  no  satisfactory  explana 
tions  were  received  war  should  be  declared 
against  Spain  and  France  by  the  United 
States ;  that  explanations  should  also  be 
sought  from  Russia  and  Great  Britain,  and 
a  vigorous  continental  spirit  of  indepen 
dence  against  European  intervention  be 
aroused  all  over  the  American  continent;' 
that  this  policy  should  be  incessantly  pur 
sued  and  directed  by  somebody  ;  that  either 
the  President  should  devote  himself  en 
tirely  to  it,  or  devolve  the  direction  on 
some  member  of  his  cabinet,  whereupon 
all  debate  on  this  policy  must  end. 

This    could   be    understood    only   as   a 
formal  demand  that  the  President  should 


Abraham  Lincoln  71 

acknowledge  his  own  incompetency  to  per 
form  his  duties,  content  himself  with  the 
amusement  of  distributing  post  offices,  and 
resign  his  power  as  to  all  important  affairs 
into  the  hands  of  his  Secretary  of  State. 
It  seems  to-day  incomprehensible  how  a 
statesman  of  Seward's  calibre  could  at  that 
period  conceive  a  plan  of  policy  in  which 
the  slavery  question  had  no  place  ;  a  policy 
which  rested  upon  the  utterly  delusive  as 
sumption  that  the  secessionists,  who  had 
already  formed  their  Southern  Confederacy 
and  were  with  stern  resolution  preparing 
to  fight  for  its  independence,  could  be 
hoodwinked  back  into  the  Union  by  some 
sentimental  demonstration  against  Euro 
pean  interference ;  a  policy  w-hich,  at  that 
critical  moment,  would  have  involved  the 
Union  in  a  foreign  war,  thus  inviting  for 
eign  intervention  in  favor  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  and  increasing  tenfold  its 
chances  in  the  struggle  for  independence. 
But  it  is  equally  incomprehensible  how 
Seward  could  fail  to  see  that  this  demand 


72  Abraham  Lincoln 

of  an  unconditional  surrender  was  a  mor 
tal  insult  to  the  head  of  the  government, 
and  that  by  putting  his  proposition  on  pa 
per  he  delivered  himself  into  the  hands  of 
the  very  man  he  had  insulted ;  for,  had  Lin 
coln,  as  most  Presidents  would  have  done, 
instantly  dismissed  Seward,  and  published 
the  true  reason  for  that  dismissal,  it  would 
inevitably  have  been  the  end  of  Seward's 
career.  But  Lincoln  did  what  not  many  of 
the  noblest  and  greatest  men  in  history 
would  have  been  noble  and  great  enough 
to  do.  He  considered  that  Seward  was  still 
capable  of  rendering  great  service  to  his 
country  in  the  place  in  which  he  was,  if 
rightly  controlled.  He  ignored  the  insult, 
but  firmly  established  his  superiority.  In 
his  reply,  which  he  forthwith  dispatched, 
he  told  Seward  that  the  administration  had 
a  domestic  policy  as  laid  down  in  the  inau 
gural  address  with  Seward's  approval ;  that 
it  had  a  foreign  policy  as  traced  in  Sew 
ard's  dispatches  with  the  President's  ap 
proval  ;  that  if  any  policy  was  to  be  main- 


AbraJiam  Lincoln  73 

tained  or  changed,  he,  the  President,  was 
to  direct  that  on  his  responsibility ;  and 
that  in  performing  that  duty  the  President 
had  a  right  to  the  advice  of  his  secretaries. 
Seward's  fantastic  schemes  of  foreign  war 
and  continental  policies  Lincoln  brushed 
aside  by  passing  them  over  in  silence. 
Nothing  more  was  said.  Seward  must 

O 

have  felt  that  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  a  su 
perior  man  ;  that  his  offensive  proposition 
had  been  generously  pardoned  as  a  tempo 
rary  aberration  of  a  great  mind,  and  that 
he  could  atone  for  it  only  by  devoted  per 
sonal  loyalty.  This  he  did.  He  was  thor 
oughly  subdued,  and  thenceforth  submit 
ted  to  Lincoln  his  dispatches  for  revision 
and  amendment  without  a  murmur.  The 
war  with  European  nations  was  no  longer 
thought  of ;  the  slavery  question  found  in 
due  time  its  proper  place  in  the  struggle 
for  the  Union  ;  and  when,  at  a  later  period, 
the  dismissal  of  Seward  was  demanded  by 
dissatisfied  Senators,  who  attributed  to  him 
the  shortcomings  of  the  administration, 


74  Abraham  Lincoln 

Lincoln  stood  stoutly  by  his  faithful  Secre 
tary  of  State. 

Chase,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a 
man  of  superb  presence,  of  eminent  ability 
and  ardent  patriotism,  of  great  natural  dig 
nity  and  a  certain  outward  coldness  of 
manner,  which  made  him  appear  more  dif 
ficult  of  approach  than  he  really  was,  did 
not  permit  his  disappointment  to  burst  out 
in  such  extravagant  demonstrations.  But 
Lincoln's  ways  were  so  essentially  differ 
ent  from  his  that  they  never  became  quite 
intelligible,  and  certainly  not  congenial  to 
him.  It  might,  perhaps,  have  been  better 
had  there  been,  at  the  beginning  of  the  ad 
ministration,  some  decided  clash  between 
Lincoln  and  Chase,  as  there  was  between 
Lincoln  and  Seward,  to  bring  on  a  full  mu 
tual  explanation,  and  to  make  Chase  appre 
ciate  the  real  seriousness  of  Lincoln's  na 
ture.  But,  as  it  was,  their  relations  always 
remained  somewhat  formal,  and  Chase 
never  felt  quite  at  ease  under  a  chief  whom 
he  could  not  understand,  and  whose  char- 


Abraham  Lincoln  75 

acter  and  powers  he  never  learned  to  es 
teem  at  their  true  value.  At  the  same 
time,  he  devoted  himself  zealously  to  the 
duties  of  his  department,  and  did  the  coun 
try  arduous  service  under  circumstances  of 
extreme  difficulty.  Nobody  recognized  this 
more  heartily  than  Lincoln  himself,  and 
they  managed  to  work  together  until  near 
the  end  of  Lincoln's  first  presidential  term, 
when  Chase,  after  some  disagreements 
concerning  appointments  to  office,  resigned 
from  the  treasury ;  and,  after  Taney's 
death,  the  President  made  him  Chief  Jus 
tice. 

The  rest  of  the  cabinet  consisted  of  men 
of  less  eminence,  who  subordinated  them 
selves  more  easily.  In  January,  1862,  Lin 
coln  found  it  necessary  to  bow  Cameron 
out  of  the  war  office,  and  to  put  in  his  place 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  a  man  of  intensely 
practical  mind,  vehement  impulses,  fierce 
positiveness,  ruthless  energy,  immense 
working  power,  lofty  patriotism,  and  sever 
est  devotion  to  duty.  He  accepted  the  war 


76  Abraham  Lincoln 

office,  not  as  a  partisan,  for  he  had  never 
been  a  Republican,  but  only  to  do  all  he 
could  in  "helping  to  save  the  country." 
The  manner  in  which  Lincoln  succeeded 
in  taming  this  lion  to  his  will,  by  frankly 
recognizing  his  great  qualities,  by  giving 
him  the  most  generous  confidence,  by  aid 
ing  him  in  his  work  to  the  full  of  his  power, 
by  kindly  concession  or  affectionate  per 
suasiveness  in  cases  of  differing  opinions, 
or,  when  it  was  necessary,  by  firm  asser 
tions  of  superior  authority,  bears  the  high 
est  testimony  to  his  skill  in  the  manage 
ment  of  men.  Stanton,  who  had  entered 
the  service  with  rather  a  mean  opinion  of 
Lincoln's  character  and  capacity,  became 
one  of  his  warmest,  most  devoted,  and 
most  admiring  friends,  and  with  none  of 
his  secretaries  was  Lincoln's  intercourse 
more  intimate.  To  take  advice  with  can 
did  readiness,  and  to  weigh  it  without  any 
pride  of  his  own  opinion,  was  one  of  Lin 
coln's  preeminent  virtues  ;  but  he  had  not 
long  presided  over  his  cabinet  council  when 


Abraham  Lincoln  77 

his  was  felt  by  all  its  members  to   be  the 
ruling  mind. 

The  cautious  policy  foreshadowed  in  his 
inaugural  address,  and  pursued  during  the 
first  period  of  the  civil  war,  was  far  from 
satisfying  all  his  party  friends.  The  ardent 
spirits  among  the  Union  men  thought  that 
the  whole  North  should  at  once  be  called 
to  arms,  to  crush  the  rebellion  by  one 
powerful  blow.  The  ardent  spirits  among 
the  anti-slavery  men  insisted  that,  slavery 
having  brought  forth  the  rebellion,  this 
powerful  blow  should  at  once  be  aimed  at 
slavery.  Both  complained  that  the  admin 
istration  was  spiritless,  undecided,  and  la 
mentably  slow  in  its  proceedings.  Lincoln 
reasoned  otherwise.  The  ways  of  thinking 
and  feeling  of  the  masses,  of  the  plain  peo 
ple,  were  constantly  present  to  his  mind. 
The  masses,  the  plain  people,  had  to  fur 
nish  the  men  for  the  fighling,  if  fighting 
was  to  be  done.  He  believed  that  the  plain 
people  would  be  ready  to  fight  when  it 
clearly  appeared  necessary,  and  that  they 


78  Abraham  Lincoln 

would  feel  that  necessity  when  they  felt 
themselves  attacked.  He  therefore  waited 
until  the  enemies  of  the  Union  struck  the 
first  blow.  As  soon  as,  on  the  I2th  of 
April,  1 86 1,  the  first  gun  was  fired  in 
Charleston  harbor  on  the  Union  flag  upon 
Fort  Sumter,  the  call  was  sounded,  and  the 
Northern  people  rushed  to  arms. . 

Lincoln  knew  that  the  plain  people  were 
now  indeed  ready  to  fight  in  defense  of  the 
Union,  but  not  yet  ready  to  fight  for  the 
destruction  of  slavery.  He  declared  openly 
that  he  had  a  right  to  summon  the  people 
to  fight  for  the  Union,  but  not  to  summon 
them  to  fight  for  the  abolition  of  slavery 
as  a  primary  object;  and  this  declaration 
gave  him  numberless  soldiers  for  the  Union 
who  at  that  period  would  have  hesitated  to 
do  battle  against  the  institution  of  slavery. 
For  a  time  he  succeeded  in  rendering  harm 
less  the  cry  of  the  partisan  opposition  that 
the  Republican  administration  were  per 
verting  the  war  for  the  Union  into  an 
"  abolition  war."  But  when  he  went  so 


Abraham  Lincoln  79 

far  as  to  countermand  the  acts  of  some 
generals  in  the  field,  looking  to  the  eman 
cipation  of  the  slaves  in  the  districts  cov 
ered  by  their  commands,  loud  complaints 
arose  from  earnest  anti-slavery  men,  who 
accused  the  President  of  turning  his  back 
upon  the  anti-slavery  cause.  Many  of  these 
anti-slavery  men  will  now,  after  a  calm  re 
trospect,  be  willing  to  admit  that  it  would 
have  been  a  hazardous  policy  to  endan 
ger,  by  precipitating  a  demonstrative  fight 
against  slavery,  the  success  of  the  strug 
gle  for  the  Union. 

Lincoln's  views  and  feelings  concerning 
slavery  had  not  changed.  Those  who  con 
versed  with  him  intimately  upon  the  sub 
ject  at  that  period  know  that  he  did  not 
expect  slavery  long  to  survive  the  triumph 
of  the  Union,  even  if  it  were  not  immedi 
ately  destroyed  by  the  war.  In  this  he  was 
right.  Had  the  Union  armies  achieved  a 
decisive  victory  in  an  early  period  of  the 
conflict,  and  had  the  seceded  States  been 
received  back  with  slavery,  the  "slave 


8o  Abraham  Lincoln 

• 

power"  would  then  have  been  a  defeated 
power,  —  defeated  in  an  attempt  to  carry 
out  its  most  effective  threat.  It  would 
have  lost  its  prestige.  Its  menaces  would 
have  been  hollow  sound,  and  ceased  to 
make  any  one  afraid.  It  could  no  'longer 
have  hoped  to  expand,  to  maintain  an  equi 
librium  in  any  branch  of  Congress,  and  to 
control  the  government.  The  victorious 
free  States  would  have  largely  overbal 
anced  it.  It  would  no  longer  have  been 
able  to  withstand  the  onset  of  a  hostile 
age.  It  could  no  longer  have  ruled,  —  and 
slavery  had  to  rule  in  order  to  live.  It 
would  have  lingered  for  a  while,  but  it 
would  surely  have  been  "  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction."  A  prolonged  war 
precipitated  the  destruction  of  slavery ;  a 
short  war  might  only  have  prolonged  its 
death  struggle.  Lincoln  saw  this  clearly  ; 
but  he  saw  also  that,  in  a  protracted  death 
struggle,  it  might  still  have  kept  disloyal 
sentiments  alive,  bred  distracting  commo 
tions,  and  caused  great  mischief  to  the 


Abraham  Lincoln  81 

country.     He  therefore  hoped  that  slavery 
would  not  survive  the  war. 

But  the  question  how  he  could  rightfully 
employ  his  power  to  bring  on  its  speedy 
destruction  was  to  him  not  a  question  of 
mere  sentiment.  He  himself  set  forth  his 
reasoning  upon  it,  at  a  later  period,  in  one 
of  his  inimitable  letters.  "  I  am  naturally 
anti-slavery,"  said  he.  "  If  slavery  is  not 
wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  I  cannot  remem 
ber  the  time  when  I  did  not  so  think  and 
feel.  And  yet  I  have  never  understood 
that  the  presidency  conferred  upon  me  an 
unrestricted  right  to  act  upon  that  judg 
ment  and  feeling.  It  was  in  the  oath  I 
took  that  I  would,  to  the  best  of  my  abil 
ity,  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could 
not  take  the  office  without  taking  the  oath. 
Nor  was  it  my  view  that  I  might  take 
an  oath  to  get  power,  and  break  the  oath 
in  using  that  power.  I  understood,  too, 
that,  in  ordinary  civil  administration,  this 
oath  even  forbade  me  practically  to  indulge 


82  Abraham  Lincoln 

my  private  abstract  judgment  on  the  moral 
question  of  slavery.  I  did  understand, 
however,  also,  that  my  oath  imposed  upon 
me  the  duty  of  preserving,  to  the  best  of 
my  ability,  by  every  indispensable  means, 
that  government,  that  nation,  of  which  the 
Constitution  was  the  organic  law.  I  could 
not  feel  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I 
had  even  tried  to  preserve  the  Constitution 
if,  to  save  slavery,  or  any  minor  matter,  I 
should  permit  the  wreck  of  government, 
country,  and  Constitution  all  together." 
In  other  words,  if  the  salvation  of  the  gov 
ernment,  the  Constitution,  and  the  Union 
demanded  the  destruction  of  slavery,  he 
felt  it  to  be  not  only  his  right,  but  his 
sworn  duty  to  destroy  it.  Its  destruction 
became  a  necessity  of  the  war  for  the 
Union. 

As  the  war  dragged  on  and  disaster  fol 
lowed  disaster,  the  sense  of  that  necessity 
steadily  grew  upon  him.  Early  in  1862,  as 
some  of  his  friends  well  remember,  he  saw, 
what  Seward  seemed  not  to  see,  that  to 


Abraham  Lincoln  83 

give  the  war  for  the  Union  an  anti-slavery 
character  was  the  surest  means  to  prevent 
the  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confeder 
acy  as  an  independent  nation  by  European 
powers ;  that,  slavery  being  abhorred  by 
the  moral  sense  of  civilized  mankind,  no 
European  government  would  dare  to  offer 
so  gross  an  insult  to  the  public  opinion  of 
its  people  as  openly  to  favor  the  creation 
of  a  state  founded  upon  slavery  to  the  pre 
judice  of  an  existing  nation  fighting  against 
slavery.  He  saw  also  that  slavery  un 
touched  was  to  the  rebellion  an  element  of 
power,  and  that  in  order  to  overcome  that 
power  it  was  necessary  to  turn  it  into 
an  element  of  weakness.  Still,  he  felt 
no  assurance  that  the  plain  people  were 
prepared  for  so  radical  a  measure  as 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  by  act  of 
the  government,  and  he  anxiously  consid 
ered  that,  if  they  were  not,  this  great  step 
might,  by  exciting  dissension  at  the  North, 
injure  the  cause  of  the  Union  in  one  quar 
ter  more  than  it  would  help  it  in  another 


84  Abraham  Lincoln 

He  heartily  welcomed  an  effort  made  in 
New  York  to  mould  and  stimulate  public 
sentiment  on  the  slavery  question  by  pub 
lic  meetings  boldly  pronouncing  for  emanci 
pation.  At  the  same  time  he  himself  cau 
tiously  advanced  with  a  recommendation, 
expressed  in  a  special  message  to  Congress, 
that  the  United  States  should  cooperate 
with  any  State  which  might  adopt  the 
gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving  such 
State  pecuniary  aid  to  compensate  the 
former  owners  of  emancipated  slaves.  The 
discussion  was  started,  and  spread  rapidly. 
Congress  adopted  the  resolution  recom 
mended,  and  soon  went  a  step  farther  in 
passing  a  bill  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia.  The  plain  people  began 
to  look  at  emancipation  on  a  larger  scale, 
as  a  thing  to  be  considered  seriously  by  pa 
triotic  citizens ;  and  soon  Lincoln  thought 
that  the  time  was  ripe,  and  that  the  edict 
of  freedom  could  be  ventured  upon  without 
danger  of  serious  confusion  in  the  Union 
ranks. 


Abraham  Lincoln  85 

The  failure  of  McClellan's  movement 
upon  Richmond  increased  immensely  the 
prestige  of  the  enemy.  The  need  of  some 
great  act  to  stimulate  the  vitality  of  the 
Union  cause  seemed  to  grow  daily  more 
pressing.  On  July  21,  1862,  Lincoln  sur 
prised  his  cabinet  with  the  draught  of  a 
proclamation  declaring  free  the  slaves  in 
all  the  States  that  should  be  still  in  rebel 
lion  against  the  United  States  on  the  ist 
of  January,  1863.  As  to  the  matter  itself 
he  announced  that  he  had  fully  made  up 
his  mind ;  he  invited  advice  only  concern 
ing  the  form  and  the  time  of  publication. 
Seward  suggested  that  the  proclamation, 
if  then  brought  out,  amidst  disaster  and 
distress,  would  sound  like  the  last  shriek 
of  a  perishing  cause.  Lincoln  accepted 
the  suggestion,  and  the  proclamation  was 
postponed.  Another  defeat  followed,  the 
second  at  Bull  Run.  But  when,  after  that 
battle,  the  Confederate  army,  under  Lee, 
crossed  the  Potomac  and  invaded  Mary 
land,  Lincoln  vowed  in  his  heart  that,  if 


86  Abraham  Lincoln 

the  Union  army  were  now  blessed  with 
success,  the  decree  of  freedom  should 
surely  be  issued.  The  victory  of  Antietam 
was  won  on  September  17,  and  the  pre 
liminary  Emancipation  Proclamation  came 
forth  on  the  22d.  It  was  Lincoln's  own 
resolution  and  act ;  but  practically  it  bound 
the  nation,  and  permitted  no  step  back 
ward.  In  spite  of  its  limitations,  it  was 
the  actual  abolition  of  slavery.  Thus  he 
wrote  his  name  upon  the  books  of  history 
with  the  title  dearest  to  his  heart,  —  the 
liberator  of  the  slave. 

It  is  true,  the  great  proclamation,  which 
stamped  the  war  as  one  for  "union  and 
freedom,"  did  not  at  once  mark  the  turn 
ing  of  the  tide  on  the  field  of  military 
operations.  There  were  more  disasters,  — 
Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville.  But 
with  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  the  whole 
aspect  of  the  war  changed.  Step  by  step, 
now  more  slowly,  then  more  rapidly,  but 
with  increasing  steadiness,  the  flag  of  the 
Union  advanced  from  field  to  field  toward 


Abraham  Lincoln  87 

the  final  consummation.  The  decree  of 
emancipation  was  naturally  followed  by  the 
enlistment  of  emancipated  negroes  in  the 
Union  armies.  This  measure  had  a  far 
ther  reaching  effect  than  merely  giving 
the  Union  armies  an  increased  supply  of 
men.  The  laboring  force  of  the  rebellion 
was  hopelessly  disorganized.  The  war  be 
came  like  a  problem  of  arithmetic.  As 
the  Union  armies  pushed  forward,  the  area 
from  which  the  Southern  Confederacy 
could  draw  recruits  and  supplies  constantly 
grew  smaller,  while  the  area  from  which 
the  Union  recruited  its  strength  constantly 
grew  larger  ;  and  everywhere,  even  within 
the  Southern  lines,  the  Union  had  its  al 
lies.  The  fate  of  the  rebellion  was  then 
virtually  decided ;  but  it  still  required 
much  bloody  work  to  convince  the  brave 
warriors  who  fought  for  it  that  they  were 
really  beaten. 

Neither  did  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  forthwith  command  universal  assent 
among  the  people  who  were  loyal  to  the 


88  Abraham  Lincoln 

Union.  There  were  even  signs  of  a  reac 
tion  against  the  administration  in  the  fall 
elections  of  1862,  seemingly  justifying  the 
opinion,  entertained  by  many,  that  the 
President  had  really  anticipated  the  devel 
opment  of  popular  feeling.  The  cry  that 
the  war  for  the  Union  had  been  turned 
into  an  "  abolition  war  "  was  raised  again 
by  the  opposition,  and  more  loudly  than 
ever.  But  the  good  sense  and  patriotic  in 
stincts  of  the  plain  people  gradually  mar 
shaled  themselves  on  Lincoln's  side,  and 
he  lost  no  opportunity  to  help  on  this  pro 
cess  by  personal  argument  and  admoni 
tion.  There  never  has  been  a  President  in 
such  constant  and  active  contact  with  the 
public  opinion  of  the  country,  as  there 
never  has  been  a  President  who,  while  at 
the  head  of  the  government,  remained  so 
near  to  the  people.  Beyond  the  circle  of 
those  who  had  long  known  him,  the  feeling 
steadily  grew  that  the  man  in  the  White 
House  was  "  honest  Abe  Lincoln "  still, 
and  that  every  citizen  might  approach  him 


Abraham  Lincoln  89 

with  complaint,  expostulation,  or  advice, 
without  danger  of  meeting  a  rebuff  from 
power-proud  authority,  or  humiliating  con 
descension  ;  and  this  privilege  was  used  by 
so  many  and  with  such  unsparing  freedom 
that  only  superhuman  patience  could  have 
endured  it  all.  There  are  men  now  living 
who  would  to-day  read  with  amazement,  if 
not  regret,  what  they  then  ventured  to  say 
or  write  to  him.  But  Lincoln  repelled  no 
one  whom  he  believed  to  speak  to  him  in 
good  faith  and  with  patriotic  purpose.  No 
good  advice  would  go  unheeded.  No  can 
did  criticism  would  offend  him.  No  hon 
est  opposition,  while  it  might  pain  him, 
would  produce  a  lasting  alienation  of  feel 
ing  between  him  and  the  opponent.  It 
may  truly  be  said  that  few  men  in  power 
have  ever  been  exposed  to  more  daring 
attempts  to  direct  their  course,  to  severer 
censure  of  their  acts,  and  to  more  cruel  mis 
representation  of  their  motives.  And  all 
this  he  met  with  that  good-natured  humor 
peculiarly  his  own,  and  with  untiring  effort 


90  Abraham  Lincoln 

to  see  the  right  and  to  impress  it  upon 
those  who  differed  from  him.  The  conver 
sations  he  had  and  the  correspondence 
he  carried  on  upon  matters  of  public  inter 
est,  not  only  with  men  in  official  position, 
but  with  private  citizens,  were  almost  un 
ceasing,  and  in  a  large  number  of  public 
letters,  written  ostensibly  to  meetings,  or 
committees,  or  persons  of  importance,  he 
addressed  himself  directly  to  the  popular 
mind.  Most  of  these  letters  stand  among 
the  finest  monuments  of  our  political  lit 
erature.  Thus  he  presented  the  singular 
spectacle  of  a  President  who,  in  the  midst 
of  a  great  civil  war,  with  unprecedented 
duties  weighing  upon  him,  was  constantly 
in  person  debating  the  great  features  of 
his  policy  with  the  people. 

While  in  this  manner  he  exercised  an 
ever-increasing  influence  upon  the  popular 
understanding,  his  sympathetic  nature  en 
deared  him  more  and  more  to  the  popular 
heart.  In  vain  did  journals  and  speakers 
of  the  opposition  represent  him  as  a  light- 


Abraham  Lincoln  91 

minded  trifler,  who  amused  himself  with 
frivolous  story -telling  and  coarse  jokes, 
while  the  blood  of  the  people  was  flowing 
in  streams.  The  people  knew  that  the 
man  at  the  head  of  affairs,  on  whose  hag 
gard  face  the  twinkle  of  humor  so  fre 
quently  changed  into  an  expression  of  pro- 
foundest  sadness,  was  more  than  any  other 
deeply  distressed  by  the  suffering  he  wit 
nessed ;  that  he  felt  the  pain  of  every 
wound  that  was  inflicted  on  the  battlefield, 
and  the  anguish  of  every  woman  or  child 
who  had  lost  husband  or  father  ;  that  when 
ever  he  could  he  was  eager  to  alleviate  sor 
row,  and  that  his  mercy  was  never  implored 
in  vain.  They  looked  to  him  as  one  who 
was  with  them  and  of  them  in  all  their 
hopes  and  fears,  their  joys  and  sorrows,  — 
who  laughed  with  them  and  wept  with 
them  ;  and  as  his  heart  was  theirs,  so  their 
hearts  turned  to  him.  His  popularity  was 
far  different  from  that  of  Washington,  who 
was  revered  with  awe,  or  that  of  Jackson, 
the  unconquerable  hero,  for  whom  party 


92  Abraham  Lincoln 

enthusiasm  never  grew  weary  of  shouting. 
To  Abraham  Lincoln  the  people  became 
bound  by  a  genuine  sentimental  attach 
ment.  It  was  not  a  matter  of  respect,  or 
confidence,  or  party  pride,  for  this  feeling 
spread  far  beyond  the  boundary  lines  of 
his  party ;  it  was  an  affair  of  the  heart,  in 
dependent  of  mere  reasoning.  When  the 
soldiers  in  the  field  or  their  folks  at  home 
spoke  of  "  Father  Abraham,"  there  was  no 
cant  in  it.  They  felt  that  their  President 
was  really  caring  for  them  as  a  father 
would,  and  that  they  could  go  to  him,  every 
one  of  them,  as  they  would  go  to  a  father, 
and  talk  to  him  of  what  troubled  them, 
sure  to  find  a  willing  ear  and  tender  sym 
pathy.  Thus,  their  President,  and  his 
cause,  and  his  endeavors,  and  his  success 
gradually  became  to  them  almost  matters 
of  family  concern.  And  this  popularity 
carried  him  triumphantly  through  the  pre 
sidential  election  of  1864,  in  spite  of  an 
opposition  within  his  own  party  which  at 
first  seemed  very  formidable. 


Abraham  Lincoln  93 

Many  of  the  radical  anti-slavery  men 
were  never  quite  satisfied  with  Lincoln's 
ways  of  meeting  the  problems  of  the  time. 
They  were  very  earnest  and  mostly  very 
able  men,  who  had  positive  ideas  as  to 
"  how  this  rebellion  should  be  put  down." 
They  would  not  recognize  the  necessity  of 
measuring  the  steps  of  the  government 
according  to  the  progress  of  opinion  among 
the  plain  people.  They  criticised  Lincoln's 
cautious  management  as  irresolute,  halt 
ing,  lacking  in  definite  purpose  and  in  en 
ergy  ;  he  should  not  have  delayed  emanci 
pation  so  long;  he  should  not  have  confided 
important  commands  to  men  of  doubtful 
views  as  to  slavery ;  he  should  have  au 
thorized  military  commanders  to  set  the 
slaves  free  as  they  went  on  ;  he  dealt  too 
leniently  with  unsuccessful  generals  ;  he 
should  have  put  down  all  factious  opposi 
tion  with  a  strong  hand  instead  of  trying 
to  pacify  it ;  he  should  have  given  the' peo 
ple  accomplished  facts  instead  of  arguing 
with  them,  and  so  on.  It  is  true,  these 


94  Abraham  Lincoln 

criticisms  were  not  always  entirely  un 
founded.  Lincoln's  policy  had,  with  the 
virtues  of  democratic  government,  some  of 
its  weaknesses,  which  in  the  presence  of 
pressing  exigencies  were  apt  to  deprive 
governmental  action  of  the  necessary  vigor ; 
and  his  kindness  of  heart,  his  disposition 
always  to  respect  the  feelings  of  others, 
frequently  made  him  recoil  from  anything 
like  severity,  even  when  severity  was  ur 
gently  called  for.  But  many  of  his  radical 
critics  have  since  then  revised  their  judg 
ment  sufficiently  to  admit  that  Lincoln's 
policy  was,  on  the  whole,  the  wisest  and 
safest ;  that  a  policy  of  heroic  methods, 
while  it  has  sometimes  accomplished  great 
results,  could  in  a  democracy  like  ours  be 
maintained  only  by  constant  success  ;  that 
it  would  have  quickly  broken  down  under 
the  weight  of  disaster ;  that  it  might  have 
been  successful  from  the  start,  had  the 
Union,  at  the  beginning  of  the  conflict, 
had  its  Grants  and  Shermans  and  Sheri- 
dans,  its  Farraguts  and  Porters,  fully  ma- 


Abraham  Lincoln  95 

tured  at  the  head  of  its  forces ;  but  that, 
as  the  great  commanders  had  to  be  evolved 
slowly  from  the  developments  of  the  war, 
constant  success  could  not  be  counted 
upon,  and  it  was  best  to  follow  a  policy 
which  was  in  friendly  contact  with  the 
popular  force,  and  therefore  more  fit  to 
stand  the  trial  of  misfortune  on  the  battle 
field.  But  at  that  period  they  thought  dif 
ferently,  and  their  dissatisfaction  with  Lin 
coln's  doings  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
steps  he  took  toward  the  reconstruction  of 
rebel  States  then  partially  in  possession  of 
the  Union  forces. 

In  December,  1863,  Lincoln  issued  an 
amnesty  proclamation,  offering  pardon  to 
all  implicated  in  the  rebellion,  with  certain 
specified  exceptions,  on  condition  of  their 
taking  and  maintaining  an  oath  to  support 
the  Constitution  and  obey  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  and  the  proclamations  of  the 
President  with  regard  to  slaves ;  and  also 
promising  that  when,  in  any  of  the  rebel 
States,  a  number  of  citizens  equal  to  one 


96  Abraham  Lincoln 

tenth  of  the  voters  in  1860  should  reestab 
lish  a  state  government  in  conformity  with 
the  oath  above  mentioned,  such  should  be 
recognized  by  the  Executive  as  the  true 
government  of  the  State.  The  proclamation 
seemed  at  first  to  be  received  with  general 
favor.  But  soon  another  scheme  of  recon 
struction,  much  more  stringent  in  its  pro 
visions,  was  put  forward  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  by  Henry  Winter  Davis. 
Benjamin  Wade  championed  it  in  the  Sen 
ate.  It  passed  in  the  closing  moments  of 
the  session  in  July,  1864,  and  Lincoln,  in 
stead  of  making  it  a  law  by  his  signature, 
embodied  the  text  of  it  in  a  proclamation 
as  a  plan  of  reconstruction  worthy  of  being 
earnestly^  considered.  The  differences  of 
opinion  concerning  this  subject  had  only 
intensified  the  feeling  against  Lincoln 
which  had  long  been  nursed  among  the 
radicals,  and  some  of  them  openly  declared 
their  purpose  of  resisting  his  reelection  to 
the  presidency.  Similar  sentiments  were 
manifested  by  the  advanced  anti-slavery 


Abraham  Lincoln  97 

men  of  Missouri,  who,  in  their  hot  faction- 
fight  with  the  "conservatives"  of  that 
State,  had  not  received  from  Lincoln  the 
active  support  they  demanded.  Still  an 
other  class  of  Union  men,  mainly  in  the 
East,  gravely  shook  their  heads  when  con 
sidering  the  question  whether  Lincoln 
should  be  reflected.  They  were  those  who 
cherished  in  their  minds  an  ideal  of  states 
manship  and  of  personal  bearing  in  high 
office  with  which,  in  their  opinion,  Lin 
coln's  individuality  was  much  out  of  ac 
cord.  They  were  shocked  when  they  heard 
him  cap  an  argument  upon  grave  affairs 
of  state  with  a  story  about  "  a  man  out  in 
Sangamon  County," — a  story,  to  be  sure, 
strikingly  clinching  his  point,  but  sadly 
lacking  in  dignity.  They  could  not  under 
stand  the  man  who  was  capable,  in  opening 
a  cabinet  meeting,  of  reading  to  his  secre 
taries  a  funny  chapter  from  a  recent  book 
of  Artemus  Ward,  with  which  in  an  un 
occupied  moment  he  had  relieved  his  care- 
burdened  mind,  and  who  then  solemnly  in- 


98  Abraham  Lincoln 

formed  the  executive  council  that  he  had 
vowed  in  his  heart  to  issue  a  proclamation 
emancipating  the  slaves  as  soon  as  God 
blessed  the  Union  arms  with  another  vic 
tory.  They  were  alarmed  at  the  weakness 
of  a  President  who  would  indeed  resist  the 
urgent  remonstrances  of  statesmen  against 
his  policy,  but  could  not  resist  the  prayer 
of  an  old  woman  for  the  pardon  of  a  sol 
dier  who  was  sentenced  to  be  shot  for 
desertion.  Such  men,  mostly  sincere  and 
ardent  patriots,  not  only  wished,  but  ear 
nestly  set  to  work,  to  prevent  Lincoln's  re- 
nomination.  Not  a  few  of  them  actually 
believed,  in  1863,  that,  if  the  national  con 
vention  of  the  Union  party  were  held  then, 
Lincoln  would  not  be  supported  by  the 
delegation  of  a  single  State.  But  when 
the  convention  met  at  Baltimore,  in  June, 
1864,  the  voice  of  the  people  was  heard. 
On  the  first  ballot  Lincoln  received  the 
votes  of  the  delegations  from  all  the  States 
except  Missouri ;  and  even  the  Missourians 
turned  over  their  votes  to  him  before  the 
result  of  the  ballot  was  declared. 


Abraham  Lincoln  99 

But  even  after  his  renomination  the  op 
position  to  Lincoln  within  the  ranks  of  the 
Union  party  did  not  subside.  A  conven 
tion,  called  by  the  dissatisfied  radicals  in 
Missouri,  and  favored  by  men  .of  a  similar 
way  of  thinking  in  other  States,  had  been 
held  already  in  May,  and  had  nominated  as 
its  candidate  for  the  presidency  General 
Fremont.  He,  indeed,  did  not  attract  a 
strong  following,  but  opposition  movements 
from  different  quarters  appeared  more 
formidable.  Henry  Winter  Davis  and 
Benjamin  Wade  assailed  Lincoln  in  a  flam 
ing  manifesto.  Other  Union  men,  of  un 
doubted  patriotism  and  high  standing,  per 
suaded  themselves,  and  sought  to  persuade 
the  people,  that  Lincoln's  renomination 
was  ill  advised  and  dangerous  to  the  Union 
cause.  As  the  Democrats  had  put  off  their 
convention  until  the  29th  of  August,  the 
Union  party  had,  during  the  larger  part  of 
the  summer,  no  opposing  candidate  and 
platform  to  attack,  and  the  political  cam 
paign  languished.  Neither  were  the  tid- 


IOO  Abraham  Lincoln 


ings  from  the  theatre  of  war  of  a  cheer 
ing  character.    The  terrible  losses  suffered 
by  Grant's  army  in  the  battles  of  the  Wil 
derness  spread  general   gloom.     Sherman 
seemed  for  .a  while  to  be  in  a  precarious 
position    before  Atlanta.     The  opposition 
to  Lincoln  within  the   Union   party  grew 
louder    in    its    complaints  and  discourag 
ing   predictions.     Earnest    demands   were 
heard  that  his   candidacy  should  be  with 
drawn.     Lincoln  himself,  not  knowing  how 
strongly  the  masses  were  attached  to  him, 
was    haunted    by  dark  forebodings  of  de 
feat.     Then  the  scene  suddenly  changed 
as  if  by  magic.     The  Democrats,  in  their 
national    convention,   declared    the   war  a 
failure,  demanded,  substantially,  peace  at 
any  price,  and  nominated  on  such  a  plat 
form  General  McClellan  as  their  candidate. 
Their    convention    had    hardly    adjourned 
when  the  capture  of  Atlanta  gave  a  new 
aspect  to   the   military    situation.     It   was 
like   a   sun-ray    bursting    through    a   dark 
cloud.     The  rank  and   file  of   the   Union 


Abraham  Lincoln  101 

party  rose  with  rapidly  growing  enthusi 
asm.  The  song  "  We  are  coming,  Father 
Abraham,  three  hundred  thousand  strong," 
resounded  all  over  the  land.  Long  before 
the  decisive  day  arrived,  the  result  was  be 
yond  doubt,  and  Lincoln  was  reflected 
President  by  overwhelming  majorities. 
The  election  over,  even  his  severest  critics 
found  themselves  forced  to  admit  that  Lin 
coln  was  the  only  possible  candidate  for 
the  Union  party  in  1864,  and  that  nei 
ther  political  combinations  nor  campaign 
speeches,  nor  even  victories  in  the  field, 
were  needed  to  insure  his  success.  The 
plain  people  had  all  the  while  been  satisfied 
with  Abraham  Lincoln  :  they  confided  in 
him  ;  they  loved  him  ;  they  felt  themselves 
near  to  him  ;  they  saw  personified  in  him 
the  cause  of  Union  and  freedom  ;  and  they 
went  to  the  ballot-box  for  him  in  their 
strength. 

The  hour  of  triumph  called  out  the  char 
acteristic  impulses  of  his  nature.  The  op 
position  within  the  Union  party  had  stung 


IO2  Abraham  Lincoln 

him  to  the  quick.  Now  he  had  his  oppo 
nents  before  him,  baffled  and  humiliated. 
Not  a  moment  did  he  lose  to  stretch  out 
the  hand  of  friendship  to  all.  "  Now  that 
the  election  is  over,"  he  said,  in  response 
to  a  serenade,  "may  not  all,  having  a  com 
mon  interest,  reunite  in  a  common  effort  to 
save  our  common  country  ?  For  my  own 
part,  I  have  striven,  and  will  strive,  to  place 
no  obstacle  in  the  way.  So  long  as  I  have 
been  here  I  have  not  willingly  planted  a 
thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am 
deeply  sensible  to  the  high  compliment  of 
a  reelection,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satis 
faction  that  any  other  man  may  be  pained 
or  disappointed  by  the  result.  May  I  ask 
those  who  were  with  me  to  join  with  me 
in  the  same  spirit  toward  those  who  were 
against  me  ? "  This  was  Abraham  Lin 
coln's  character  as  tested  in  the  furnace  of 
prosperity. 

The  war  was  virtually  decided,  but  not 
yet  ended.  Sherman  was  irresistibly  car 
rying  the  Union  flag  through  the  South. 


Abraham  Lincoln  103 

Grant  had  his  iron  hand  upon  the  ramparts 
of  Richmond.  The  days  of  the  Confeder 
acy  were  evidently  numbered.  Only  the 
last  blow  remained  to  be  struck.  Then 
Lincoln's  second  inauguration  came,  and 
with  it  his  second  inaugural  address.  Lin 
coln's  famous  "  Gettysburg  speech  "  has 
been  much  and  justly  admired.  But  far 
greater,  as  well  as  far  more  characteristic, 
was  that  inaugural  in  which  he  poured  out 
the  whole  devotion  and  tenderness  of  his 
great  soul.  It  had  all  the  solemnity  of  a 
father's  last  admonition  and  blessing  to  his 
children  before  he  lay  down  to  die.  These 
were  its  closing  words  :  "  Fondly  do  we 
hope,  fervently  .do  we  pray,  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass 
away.  Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  continue 
until  all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  the  bond 
man's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unre 
quited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every 
drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be 
paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as 
was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still 


IO4  Abraham  Lincoln 

it  must  be  said,  '  The  judgments  of  the 
Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.' 
With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives 
us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  finish 
the  work  we  are  in  ;  to  bind  up  the  na 
tion's  wounds  ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow 
and  his  orphan ;  to  do  all  which  may 
achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting 
peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  na 
tions." 

This  was  like  a  sacred  poem.  No  Ameri 
can  President  had  ever  spoken  words  like 
these  to  the  American  people.  America 
never  had  a  President  who  found  such 
words  in  the  depth  of  his  heart. 

Now  followed  the  closing  scenes  of  the 
war.  The  Southern  armies  fought  bravely 
to  the  last,  but  all  in  vain.  Richmond  fell. 
Lincoln  himself  entered  the  city  on  foot, 
accompanied  only  by  a  few  officers  and 
a  squad  of  sailors  who  had  rowed  him 
ashore  from  the  flotilla  in  the  James  River, 


Abraham  Lincoln  105 

a  negro  picked  up  on  the  way  serving  as  a 
guide.  Never  had  the  world  seen  a  more 
modest  conqueror  and  a  more  characteristic 
triumphal  procession,  —  no  army  with  ban 
ners  and  drums,  only  a  throng  of  those 
who  had  been  slaves,  hastily  run  together, 
escorting  the  victorious  chief  into  the  capi 
tal  of  the  vanquished  foe.  We  are  told 
that  they  pressed  around  him,  kissed  his 
hands  and  his  garments,  and  shouted  and 
danced  for  joy,  while  tears  ran  down  the 
President's  care-furrowed  cheeks. 

A  few  days  more  brought  the  surren 
der  of  Lee's  army,  and  peace  was  assured. 
The  people  of  the  North  were  wild  with 
joy.  Everywhere  festive  guns  were  boom 
ing,  bells  pealing,  the  churches  ringing 
with  thanksgivings,  and  jubilant  multitudes 
thronging  the  thoroughfares,  when  sud 
denly  the  news  flashed  over  the  land  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  murdered. 
The  people  were  stunned  by  the  blow. 
Then  a  wail  of  sorrow  went  up  such  as 
America  had  never  heard  before.  Thou- 


106  Abraham  Lincoln 

sands  of  Northern  households  grieved  as  if 
they  had  lost  their  dearest  member.  Many 
a  Southern  man  cried  out  in  his  heart  that 
his  people  had  been  robbed  of  their  best 
friend  in  their  humiliation  and  distress, 
when  Abraham  Lincoln  was  struck  down. 
It  was  as  if  the  tender  affection  which  his 
countrymen  bore  him  had  inspired  all  na 
tions  with  a  common  sentiment.  All  civi 
lized  mankind  stood  mourning  around  the 
coffin  of  the  dead  President.  Many  of 
those,  here  and  abroad,  who  not  long  be 
fore  had  ridiculed  and  reviled  him  were 
among  the  first  to  hasten  on  with  their 
flowers  of  eulogy,  and  in  that  universal 
chorus  of  lamentation  and  praise  there  was 
not  a  voice  that  did  not  tremble  with  gen 
uine  emotion.  Never  since  Washington's 
death  had  there  been  such  unanimity  of 
judgment  as  to  a  man's  virtues  and  great 
ness  ;  and  even  Washington's  death,  al 
though  his  name  was  held  in  greater  rever 
ence,  did  not  touch  so  sympathetic  a  chord 
in  the  people's  hearts. 


Abraham  Lincoln  107 

Nor  can  it  be  said  that  this  was  owing 
to  the  tragic  character  of  Lincoln's  end.  It 
is  true,  the  death  of  this  gentlest  and  most 
merciful  of  rulers  by  the  hand  of  a  mad 
fanatic  was  well  apt  to  exalt  him  beyond 
his  merits  in  the  estimation  of  those  who 
loved  him,  and  to  make  his  renown  the  ob 
ject  of  peculiarly  tender  solicitude.  But  it 
is  also  true  that  the  verdict  pronounced 
upon  him  in  those  days  has  been  affected 
little  by  time,  and  that  historical  inquiry 
has  served  rather  to  increase  than  to  lessen 
the  appreciation  of  his  virtues,  his  abilities, 
his  services.  Giving  the  fullest  measure 
of  credit  to  his  great  ministers,  —  to  Sew- 
ard  for  his  conduct  of  foreign  affairs,  to 
Chase  for  the  management  of  the  finances 
under  terrible  difficulties,  to  Stanton  for 
the  performance  of  his  tremendous  task 
as  war  secretary,  —  and  readily  acknow 
ledging  that  without  the  skill  and  fortitude 
of  the  great  commanders,  and  the  heroism 
of  the  soldiers  and  sailors  under  them,  suc 
cess  could  not  have  been  achieved,  the  his- 


loS  Abraham  Lincoln 

torian  still  finds  that  Lincoln's  judgment 
and  will  were  by  no  means  governed  by 
those  around  him  ;  that  the  most  impor 
tant  steps  were  owing  to  his  initiative ;  that 
his  was  the  deciding  and  directing  mind  ; 
and  that  it  was  preeminently  he  whose  sa 
gacity  and  whose  character  enlisted  for  the 
administration  in  its  struggles  the  counte 
nance,  the  sympathy,  and  the  support  of 
the  people.  It  is  found,  even,  that  his 
judgment  on  military  matters  was  aston 
ishingly  acute,  and  that  the  advice  and 
instructions  he  gave  to  the  generals  com 
manding  in  the  field  would  not  seldom 
have  done  honor  to  the  ablest  of  them. 
History,  therefore,  without  overlooking,  or 
palliating,  or  excusing  any  of  his  short 
comings  or  mistakes,  continues  to  place 
him  foremost  among  the  saviours  of  the 
Union  and  the  liberators  of  the  slave. 
More  than  that,  it  awards  to  him  the  merit 
of  having  accomplished  what  but  few  polit 
ical  philosophers  would  have  recognized  as 
possible,  —  of  leading  the  republic  through 


Abraham  Lincoln  109 

four  years  of  furious  civil  conflict  without 
any  serious  detriment  to  its  free  institu 
tions. 

He  was,  indeed,  while  President,  vio 
lently  denounced  by  the  opposition  as  a 
tyrant  and  a  usurper,  for  having  gone  be 
yond  his  constitutional  powers  in  author 
izing  or  permitting  the  temporary  sup 
pression  of  newspapers,  and  in  wantonly 
suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and 
resorting  to  arbitrary  arrests.  Nobody 
should  be  blamed  who,  when  such  things 
are  done,  in  good  faith  and  from  patriotic 
motives  protests  against  them.  In  a  repub 
lic,  arbitrary  stretches  of  power,  even  when 
demanded  by  necessity,  should  never  be 
permitted  to  pass  without  a  protest  on  the 
one  hand,  and  without  an  apology  on  the 
other.  It  is  well  they  did  not  so  pass  dur 
ing  our  civil  war.  That  arbitrary  measures 
were  resorted  to  is  true.  That  they  were 
resorted  to  most  sparingly,  and  only  when 
the  government  thought  them  absolutely 
required  by  the  safety  of  the  republic,  will 


no  Abraham  Lincoln 

now  hardly  be  denied.  But  certain  it  is 
that  the  history  of  the  world  does  not  fur 
nish  a  single  example  of  a  government 
passing  through  so  tremendous  a  crisis  as 
our  civil  war  was  with  so  small  a  record  of 
arbitrary  acts,  and  so  little  interference 
with  the  ordinary  course  of  law  outside  the 
field  of  military  operations.  No  American 
President  ever  wielded  such  power  as  that 
which  was  thrust  into  Lincoln's  hands.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  no  American  President 
ever  will  have  to  be  entrusted  with  such 
power  again.  But  no  man  was  ever  en 
trusted  with  it  to  whom  its  seductions  were 
less  dangerous  than  they  proved  to  be  to 
Abraham  Lincoln.  With  scrupulous  care 
he  endeavored,  even  under  the  most  trying 
circumstances,  to  remain  strictly  within 
the  constitutional  limitations  of  his  author 
ity;  and  whenever  the  boundary  became 
indistinct,  or  when  the  dangers  of  the  situ 
ation  forced  him  to  cross  it,  he  was  equally 
careful  to  mark  his  acts  as  exceptional 
measures,  justifiable  only  by  the  imperative 


Abraham  Lincoln  1 1 1 

necessities  of  the  civil  war,  so  that  they 
might  not  pass  into  history  as  precedents 
for  similar  acts  in  time  of  peace.  It  is  an 
unquestionable  fact  that  during  the  recon 
struction  period  which  followed  the  war, 
more  things  were  done  capable  of  serving 
as  dangerous  precedents  than  during  the 
war  itself.  Thus  it  may  truly  be  said  of 
him  not  only  that  under  his  guidance  the 
republic  was  saved  from  disruption  and  the 
country  was  purified  of  the  blot  of  slavery, 
but  that,  during  the  stormiest  and  most 
perilous  crisis  in  our  history,  he  so  con 
ducted  the  government  and  so  wielded  his 
almost  dictatorial  power  as  to  leave  essen 
tially  intact  our  free  institutions  in  all 
things  that  concern  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  citizen.  He  understood  well  the 
nature  of  the  problem.  In  his  first  mes 
sage  to  Congress  he  defined  it  in  admirably 
pointed  language  :  "  Must  a  government 
be  of  necessity  too  strong  for  the  liberties 
of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak  to  maintain 
its  own  existence  ?  Is  there  in  all  repub- 


112  Abraham  Lincoln 

lies  this  inherent  weakness  ? "  This  ques 
tion  he  answered  in  the  name  of  the  great 
American  republic,  as  no  man  could  have 
answered  it  better,  with  a  triumphant 
"No." 

It  has  been  said  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
died  at  the  right  moment  for  his  fame. 
However  that  may  be,  he  had,  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  certainly  not  exhausted  his 
usefulness  to  his  country.  He  was  proba 
bly  the  only  man  who  could  have  guided 
the  nation  through  the  perplexities  of  the 
reconstruction  period  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  prevent  in  the  work  of  peace  the  revival 
of  the  passions  of  the  war.  He  would  in 
deed  not  have  escaped  serious  controversy 
as  to  details  of  policy ;  but  he  could  have 
weathered  it  far  better  than  any  other 
statesman  of  his  time,  for  his  prestige  with 
the  active  politicians  had  been  immensely 
strengthened  by  his  triumphant  reelection  ; 
and,  what  is  more  important,  he  would 
have  been  supported  by  the  confidence  of 
the  victorious  Northern  people  that  he 


Abraham  Lincoln  113 

would  do  all  to  secure  the  safety  of  the 
Union  and  the  rights  of  the  emancipated 
negro,  and  at  the  same  time  by  the  con 
fidence  of  the  defeated  Southern  people 
that  nothing  would  be  done  by  him  from 
motives  of  vindictiveness,  or  of  unreason 
ing  fanaticism,  or  of  a  selfish  party  spirit. 
"  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity 
for  all,"  the  foremost  of  the  victors  would 
have  personified  in  himself  the  genius  of 
reconciliation. 

He  might  have  rendered  the  country  a 
great  service  in  another  direction.  A  few 
days  after  the  fall  of  Richmond,  he  pointed 
out  to  a  friend  the  crowd  of  office-seekers 
besieging  his  door.  "  Look  at  that,"  said 
he.  "  Now  we  have  conquered  the  rebel 
lion,  but  here  you  see  something  that  may 
become  more  dangerous  to  this  republic 
than  the  rebellion  itself."  It  is  true,  Lin 
coln  as  President  did  not  profess  what  we 
now  call  civil  service  reform  principles. 
He  used  the  patronage  of  the  government 
in  many  cases  avowedly  to  reward  party 


114  Abraham  Lincoln 

work,  in  many  others  to  form  combinations 
and  to  produce  political  effects  advantage 
ous  to  the  Union  cause,  and  in  still  others 
simply  to  put  the  right  man  into  the  right 
place.  But  in  his  endeavors  to  strengthen 
the  Union  cause,  and  in  his  search  for  able 
and  useful  men  for  public  duties,  he  fre 
quently  went  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
party,  and  gradually  accustomed  nimself  to 
the  thought  that,  while  party  service  had 
its  value,  considerations  of  the  public  in 
terest  were,  as  to  appointments  to  office, 
of  far  greater  consequence.  Moreover, 
there  had  been  such  a  mingling  of  different 
political  elements  in  support  of  the  Union 
during  the  civil  war  that  Lincoln,  standing 
at  the  head  of  that  temporarily  united  mot 
ley  mass,  hardly  felt  himself,  in  the  narrow 
sense  of  the  term,  a  party  man.  And  as 
he  became  strongly  impressed  with  the 
dangers  brought  upon  the  republic  by  the 
use  of  public  offices  as  party  spoils,  it  is  by 
no  means  improbable  that,  had  he  survived 
the  all-absorbing  crisis  and  found  time  to 


Abraham  Lincoln  115 

turn  to  other  objects,  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  reforms  of  later  days  would  have 
been  pioneered  by  his  powerful  authority. 
This  was  not  to  be.  But  the  measure  of 
his  achievements  was  full  enough  for  im 
mortality. 

To  the  younger  generation  Abraham 
Lincoln  has  already  become  a  half-mythical 
figure,  which,  in  the  haze  of  historic  dis 
tance,  grows  to  more  and  more  heroic  pro 
portions,  but  also  loses  in  distinctness  of 
outline  and  feature.  This  is  indeed  the 
common  lot  of  popular  heroes  ;  but  the 
Lincoln  legend  will  be  more  than  ordina 
rily  apt  to  become  fanciful,  as  his  individ 
uality,  assembling  seemingly  incongruous 
qualities  and  forces  in  a  character  at  the 
same  time  grand  and  most  lovable,  was  so 
unique,  and  his  career  so  abounding  in 
startling  contrasts.  As  the  state  of  society 
in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  grew  up  passes 
away,  the  world  will  read  with  increasing 
wonder  of  the  man  who,  not  only  of  the 
humblest  origin,  but  remaining  the  sim- 


ii6  Abraham  Lincoln 

plest  and  most  unpretending  of  citizens, 
was  raised  to  a  position  of  power  unprece 
dented  in  our  history ;  who  was  the  gen 
tlest  and  most  peace-loving  of  mortals,  un 
able  to  see  any  creature  suffer  without  a 
pang  in  his  own  breast,  and  suddenly 
found  himself  called  to  conduct  the  great 
est  and  bloodiest  of  our  wars  ;  who  wielded 
the  power  of  government  when  stern  reso 
lution  and  relentless  force  were  the  order 
of  the  day,  and  then  won  and  ruled  the 
popular  mind  and  heart  by  the  tender  sym 
pathies  of  his  nature  ;  who  was  a  cautious 
conservative  by  temperament  and  mental 
habit,  and  led  the  most  sudden  and  sweep 
ing  social  revolution  of  our  time;  who, 
preserving  his  homely  speech  and  rustic 
manner  even  in  the  most  conspicuous  posi 
tion  of  that  period,  drew  upon  himself  the 
scoffs  of  polite  society,  and  then  thrilled 
the  soul  of  mankind  with  utterances  of 
wonderful  beauty  and  grandeur  ;  who,  in 
his  heart  the  best  friend  of  the  defeated 
South,  was  murdered  because  a  crazy  fa- 


Abraham  Lincoln 


117 


natic  took  him  for  its  most  cruel  enemy ; 
who,  while  in  power,  was  beyond  measure 
lampooned  and  maligned  by  sectional  pas 
sion  and  an  excited  party  spiritJand  around 
whose  bier  ^friend  and  foe  gathered  to 
praise  him  —  which  they  have  since  never 
ceased  to  do  —  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
Americans  and  the  best  of  men.  \ 


OVERDUE. 

1^19  1934 


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